Wilson disease as a cause of liver injury in cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis-related liver disease affects approximately one third of all patients with cystic fibrosis. Initial signs of other liver diseases including the genetically determined disorders of the liver co-inherited with cystic fibrosis may be obscured by or ascribed to cystic fibrosis-related liver disease. We report a patient shown to suffer simultaneously from cystic fibrosis and hepatic Wilson disease. Our case documents that in patients with cystic fibrosis presenting with liver disease, when unusual clinical and/or laboratory abnormalities appear and fail to respond to standard therapy, a second disease, including rare inherited metabolic disorders such as the hepatic form of Wilson disease or alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency, should be suspected.