Wernicke encephalopathy is caused by thiamine deficiency. Although the clinical picture has been well established for some time, clinical diagnosis is attained in only 20% of the cases. MR imaging techniques contribute to early diagnosis of Wernicke encephalopathy. We herein report MR imaging and proton MR spectroscopic findings for a patient with clinical and biochemical features consistent wi...

Wernicke encephalopathy is a disease that constitutes a medical emergency, but one that can be reversed with thiamine repletion if it is recognized early. Patients with cancer have a high risk of Wernicke encephalopathy because of malnutrition, the use of chemotherapeutic agents, and disease progression. Korsakoff syndrome can follow or accompany Wernicke encephalopathy. Although patients can r...

Wernicke encephalopathy is a neurologic disorder that results from thiamine deficiency. It is associated with a classic triad of symptoms consisting of ataxia, ocular motor cranial neuropathies, and changes in consciousness. We report 3 cases of Wernicke encephalopathy in which MR imaging, including diffusion-weighted imaging, was performed at the onset and during follow-up. MR imaging findings...

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...

OBJECTIVE To characterize the clinical features, risk factors, radiographic findings, and prognosis of Wernicke encephalopathy after bariatric surgery. METHODS We performed a systematic review of MEDLINE, Embase, Ovid, ISI (Science Citation Index), and Google Scholar for case reports, case series, or cohort studies of Wernicke encephalopathy after bariatric surgery. RESULTS We found 32 case...

Carl Wernicke described first Wernicke encephalopathy in 1881. He reported a pathological clinical situation, which comprises a triad of symptoms with acute mental confusion, ataxia, and ophthalmoplegia. He described three patients, two with a story of high alcohol consumption and one patient with persistent vomiting that presented with progressive stupor and coma, progressing to death. After t...

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 ...

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.