Wilson's disease is a potentially fatal condition that causes copper to build up in various organs. In this test-specific episode of the "Answers From the Lab" podcast, Joshua Bornhorst, Ph.D., explains how Mayo Clinic Laboratories' labile copper blood test (Mayo ID: LBCS) measures both bioavailable copper and overall copper to better identify this treatable disease.

"This test represents a new way to assess for the presence of Wilson's disease. We believe it's more sensitive and specific than measuring total copper alone," Dr. Bornhorst says.

About 90% of copper in the body normally is bound to ceruloplasmin in serum and not bioavailable. Wilson's disease causes not only a decrease in overall copper levels in serum but also an increase in the percentage of bioavailable copper, or labile bound copper (LBC), relative to total copper. Mayo Clinic Laboratories' new assay isolates LBC from total copper through a series of filtration and chelation steps.

"When both high total copper and a high LBC fraction are present, that's a rule-in for Wilson's disease with about 91% sensitivity," Dr. Bornhorst says. "A normal total copper and a normal LBC fraction serve as a very good rule-out of Wilson's disease." Mayo Clinic's study assessing the assay's clinical performance was published in The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine.

Listen to learn more about Mayo Clinic Laboratories' labile copper test.

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Testing

LBCS | Labile Bound Copper, Serum