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Washington University Experience | METABOLIC | Wernicke Encephalopathy | 1A0 Case 1 History
Case 1 History ---- This 49 year-old woman had a history of excessive alcohol intake, hyperthyroidism, axonal sensorimotor polyneuropathy, hypertension, visual loss (decreased acuity, photophobia) and generalized weakness, which worsened over the course of a month. Brain MRI showed abnormal T2/Flair hyperintensities suggestive of a metabolic insult. She developed bilateral lobar pneumonia and hepatic necrosis and subsequently expired. ---- Neuroautopsy demonstrated hemorrhages involving the mammillary bodies, walls of the cerebral aqueduct, third and fourth ventricles as well as neuron loss involving the dorsal medial thalamus, a pattern consistent with Wernicke encephalopathy.
