Hypoxia-ischemia and thiamine deficiency

TY - JOUR

T1 - Hypoxia-ischemia and thiamine deficiency

AU - Vortmeyer, A O

AU - Hagel, C

AU - Laas, R

PY - 1993

Y1 - 1993

N2 - In order to test the hypothesis that Wernicke's encephalopathy is of topographic rather than of pathogenetic specificity we examined the brains of 49 patients without any evidence of chronic alcoholism. They had died at least four days after an event of severe hypoxia-ischemia. They all showed extensive lesions in the cortex, in the thalamus and in other regions. In 19 of them there was additional necrosis in the mamillary bodies which apparently was of the same age as the associated cortical and thalamic lesions and which could not be distinguished from Wernicke's encephalopathy. In three of the 19 cases there was a total necrosis within the mamillary bodies. By re-examining the mamillary bodies of 12 known alcoholics without any evidence for an ischemic impact we could affirm that total necrosis may fit into the spectrum of Wernicke's encephalopathy. Our findings demonstrate that the morphological changes in the mamillary bodies due to thiamine deficiency and those due to hypoxia-ischemia may be identical.

AB - In order to test the hypothesis that Wernicke's encephalopathy is of topographic rather than of pathogenetic specificity we examined the brains of 49 patients without any evidence of chronic alcoholism. They had died at least four days after an event of severe hypoxia-ischemia. They all showed extensive lesions in the cortex, in the thalamus and in other regions. In 19 of them there was additional necrosis in the mamillary bodies which apparently was of the same age as the associated cortical and thalamic lesions and which could not be distinguished from Wernicke's encephalopathy. In three of the 19 cases there was a total necrosis within the mamillary bodies. By re-examining the mamillary bodies of 12 known alcoholics without any evidence for an ischemic impact we could affirm that total necrosis may fit into the spectrum of Wernicke's encephalopathy. Our findings demonstrate that the morphological changes in the mamillary bodies due to thiamine deficiency and those due to hypoxia-ischemia may be identical.

KW - Adult

KW - Aged

KW - Brain Ischemia

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Hypoxia, Brain

KW - Immunohistochemistry

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Retrospective Studies

KW - Thiamine Deficiency

KW - Wernicke Encephalopathy

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 8403626

VL - 12

SP - 184

EP - 190

JO - CLIN NEUROPATHOL

JF - CLIN NEUROPATHOL

SN - 0722-5091

IS - 4

ER -