A unique MRI-pattern in alcohol-associated Wernicke encephalopathy

Excerpt

Wernicke encephalopathy (WE) due to vitamin-B1 (i.e. thiamine) deficiency is an emergency that might easily be overlooked. The most common underlying cause is vitamin-B1 deficiency in the setting of alcohol abuse/addiction. However, there are also many relevant other risk constellations in non-alcoholic patients including inadequate dietary intake (e.g. voluntary starvation, anorexia nervosa, poverty), reduced gastrointestinal absorption (e.g. malignant tumors, after gastric surgery), hyperemesis (e.g. during pregnancy or chemotherapy), decreased hepatic storage or even graft-versus-host disease [1‐5]. While the treatment is cheap and readily available in the clinical setting, the failure to recognize a thiamine deficiency can have a detrimental effect on the clinical outcome and the patients’ quality of life [1]. Therefore, knowledge of the clinical and imaging presentation of Wernicke encephalopathy is crucial for clinical practice. …