Wernicke encephalopathy is a disease usually related to chronic alcoholism. The clinical diagnosis is often difficult to establish, and CT is unable to provide specific findings. MR follow-up studies in five patients affected by Wernicke encephalopathy were performed with the aim of establishing the sensitivity of MR in depicting the typical diencephalic/mesencephalic lesions. All subjects had ...

Early recognition and diagnosis of Wernicke encephalopathy is pivotal for the prognosis of this medical emergency, especially in patients with liver failure which predisposes individuals to develop hepatic encephalopathy. For these patients, distinguishing between hepatic encephalopathy and Wernicke encephalopathy is a challenge in real-world clinical practice.A male patient with 21-year medica...

S OF PAPERS IN PREPARATION 54. Charlton, R.L., Wernicke, B.P., and Abolins, M.J., 1997, A major Neoproterozoic incision event near the base of the Cordilleran miogeocline, southwestern Great Basin: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 29, no. 6, p. A-197. [S] 55. Petronis, M.S., Geissman, J.W., Holm, O.K., Schauble, E., and Wernicke, B.P., 1997, Paleomagnetic data bearing o...

A 37-year-old woman developed Wernicke encephalopathy after prolonged psychogenic food refusal. MR revealed characteristic signal abnormalities in the midbrain and dorsal thalamus. Follow-up scans showed atrophy and third ventricular enlargement. Wernicke encephalopathy can occur in nonalcoholics, and MR imaging is useful in both the diagnosis and follow-up.

We report a case of Wernicke encephalopathy in which the only sign of acute disease was enhancement of the mamillary bodies. This case demonstrates the utility of gadolinium enhancement at MR imaging as a means of diagnosing or confirming the syndrome of Wernicke encephalopathy even in the absence of atrophy or T2 abnormalities within the diencephalon and mesencephalon.

Visual evoked responses (VERs) were recorded on 52 chronic alcoholics patients without Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, 22 of whom had cerebellar ataxia, and eight chronic alcoholics with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Abnormal VERs were found in 23% of patients without and 37% of patients with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. The main VER abnormalities of all the alcoholic groups were prolonged latency ...

Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency causing Wernicke encephalopathy occurs most frequently in people with compromised absorption (e.g., malnutrition, hyperemesis), increased metabolism (e.g., sepsis, malignancy) or increased carbohydrate intake (e.g., administration of intravenous dextrose). Guidelines from the European Federation of Neurological Societies suggest that Wernicke enceph alopathy is ...