BACKGROUND Gastric partitioning is a surgical procedure for the treatment of morbid obesity that may engender neurological complications, such as Wernicke encephalopathy and polyneuropathy. SETTING A specialist hospital. PATIENT A 36-year-old woman developed Wernicke-Korsakoff encephalopathy and polyneuropathy 3 months after gastroplasty for morbid obesity. A magnetic resonance scan documen...

A 55-year-old man presented in a global confusional state and after 24 hours fell into deep coma. Laboratory findings, including alcohol level, were normal. MRI showed abnormalities typical of Wernicke encephalopathy (figure).1,2 Thiamine was administered immediately, but the patient died 2 weeks later. The diagnosis was confirmed by measurement of blood thiamine level (19.3 ng/ mL; normal rang...

Sir, We read with interest the recent paper of Gibb et al. (1985) in which reversible coma in Wernicke's encephalopathy was reported. Treatment with thiamine was successful in that the patient regained consciousness but unsuccessful in preventing the residual amnestic defect of Korsakoff's encephalopathy. In a similar report (Wallis et al., 1978) four comatose patients with the Wernicke syndrom...

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is a manifestation of thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, usually secondary to alcohol abuse, although there other non-alcohol related causes, such as bariatric surgery, and extreme dietary restriction. The syndrome is a combined manifestation of the short-lived but acute Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE), followed by chronic Korsakoff syndrome. It is generally accepted t...

Lencephalopathie de Wernicke est causee par une carence severe en thiamine il surtout observe chez les patients alcooliques, Nous rapportons le cas dune femme 34 ans a 10 SA, avec hyperemesisgravidarum severe. Elle presente confusion surdite bilaterale brutale crise convulsive tonico-clonique . Limagerie magnetique resonance montreun aspect faveur dun syndrome Gayet-Wernicke, sur vitaminique de...

on this tradition to outline the way in which two sensory messages arriving simultaneously – for example through the eye and the ear – laid down associations that were then reexcited whenever just one of the elements reappeared. To use his favourite example, the sight and sound of a bleating lamb laid down association fibres connecting the visual image of a woolly quadruped with the auditory st...

conclusions with growing cohort of young and middle-aged people, there is a probable risk of upsurge of ard. presently, there are dilemmas over the diagnosis of independent ard. thus, there is a need to develop evidence-based guidelines for diagnosis and management of ard through further systematic studies. results the prolonged and excessive use of alcohol may lead to structural and functional...

We investigated the correlation of MR imaging features with the pathological evolution and prognosis of nonalcoholic Wernicke encephalopathy. A retrospective review and analysis was conducted of 6 cases of nonalcoholic Wernicke encephalopathy, consisting of MR imaging features, clinical characteristics, and outcomes after thiamine administration. One patient died, 1 patient entered a persistent...

Thiamine deficiency may be assessed clinically by an abnormally low specific erythrocyte transketolase activity and/or by abnormally large activation by thiamine diphosphate in vitro (or 'TPP effect'). In the present investigation, we report erythrocyte transketolase activation by TPP in acute alcoholics and Wernicke-Korsakoff patients undergoing detoxification. A new age-dependent parameter wa...