Zinc salt (Wilson's disease)
Zinc acetate
Brand names: Wilzin
Adult dose
Dose: 50mg elemental zinc TDS (adult, non-pregnant); adjust per clinical response
Route: Oral
Frequency: TDS (between meals)
Clinical pearls
- Maintenance therapy for Wilson's disease; blocks GI copper absorption
- Take on empty stomach or with small protein snack
- Copper and zinc monitoring essential; urine copper used to assess adequacy
Contraindications
- Acute decompensated Wilson's disease (copper chelators preferred initially)
- Pregnancy — reduce dose to 25mg TDS
- Hypersensitivity
Side effects
- GI irritation (especially morning dose — take with small amount of protein)
- Elevated serum lipase/amylase
- Sideroblastic anaemia (rare, copper deficiency)
Interactions
- Iron salts (separate by 2 hours)
- Calcium salts
- Tetracyclines / fluoroquinolones (chelation)
Monitoring
- 24h urine copper
- Serum zinc
- LFTs
- FBC (copper deficiency)
Reference: BNF; NICE EAMS; EASL clinical practice guidelines for Wilson's disease; SmPC; https://bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/zinc-acetate/. Verify against your local formulary and the latest BNF before prescribing.
Related
Curated clinical cross-links plus same-class fallbacks.
Calculators
- Rate-Pressure Product (RPP) · Haemodynamics
- DAPT Score · Coronary Artery Disease
- Mehran Score for Post-PCI Contrast Nephropathy · Coronary Artery Disease
- Aortic Dissection Detection Risk Score (ADD-RS) · Aortic Disease
- RoPE Score for Patent Foramen Ovale · Structural Heart Disease
- Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) Angina Grading · Coronary Artery Disease
Pathways
- Sepsis Screening and Sepsis Six · UK Sepsis Trust; NICE NG51; Surviving Sepsis Campaign 2021
- Unintentional Weight Loss Workup · NICE NG12; BSG
- Chronic Fatigue Workup · NICE NG206; BMJ Best Practice
- Lymphadenopathy Workup · NICE NG12; BMJ Best Practice
- Pre-op Medical Clearance · NICE NG45; ESC 2022
- Secondary Hypertension Workup · NICE NG136; ESH 2023