Evaluation of efficacy and safety of gandouling plus sodium dimercaptosulphonate in treatment of patients with neurological Wilson's disease from China

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of gandouling plus sodium dimercaptosulphonate(DMPS) on neurological Wilson's disease(WD) in patients.METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical records of 125 WD patients with neurological syndromes who were treated with gandouling plus sodium DMPS or DMPS used alone. All patients had a history of neurological deterioration during their diseases courses. The clinical efficacies, adverse reactions, and results of the various hematological and biochemical investigations were recorded for statistical analysis.RESULTS: 92.30%(60 patients) of the WD patients treated with the combined therapy experienced an improved or stable neurological condition paral-leled by a significantly improved GAS score. Meanwhile, the WBC and PLT counts stabilized, liver function and renal function were improved or remained stable. The combined therapy also obviously promoted the 24-h urinary copper excretion. In particular, only 30.76% of the WD patients experienced mild adverse reactions, including neurological deterioration in 5 patients(7.69%), hepatic worsening in 1 subject(1.89%), which was less frequently than those in the control group treated with DMPS only.CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that the safety and efficacy of gandou-ling plus DMPS is superior to those of DMPS used alone in the WD patients with neurological symptoms.