Wernicke’s Encephalopathy Essays -- Biology Health Medicine Papers

Wernickes brain disorderIntroduction Carl Wernicke first depict the syndrome in 1881. He referred to the disorder as acute superior hemorrhagic polioencephalitis. Some of the original patients he expound included two male alcoholics and a women with esophageal stenosis. He described a clinic triad of encephalopathy, ophthalmoplegia, and ataxia. Unfortunately, most diagnoses are not made clinically but rather at phase modulation. This suggests that the classic clinical triad is rare, or that clinicians do not properly recognize the symptoms. In some clinical studies, only one third of patients diagnosed with Wernickes encephalopathy (WE) presented with the classical triad. The bulk of the patients presented encephalopathy (characterized by disorientation, indifference, and inattentiveness). Ocular motor abnormalities (nystagmus, lateral rectus palsy, and conjugate respect palsies) occurred in 96%, resulting from oculomotor, abducens, and vestibular nuclei lesions. Gait ataxia pres ented in 87%, belike due to a combination of cerebellar and vestibular inter-group communication as well as polyneuropathy. However, an autopsy-based study revealed that while 82% had kind status abnormalities only 23% had ataxia, 29% ocular motor abnormalities, and 11% polyneuropathy. The clinical triad was identified in only 17% of autopsy cases, and 19% showed none of the classic symptoms. This discrepancy between the clinical and autopsy-based studies is probably due to exclusion of atypical cases in the clinical series and the underestimate in the autopsy series of classic signs that were not properly elicited, recognized, or recorded (1). At autopsy the characteristic lesions of WK occur primarily in nuclei and structures surrounding the thi... ...e), 8 (2)107-113. 6. Butterworth, R. F., Pathophysiology of Cerebellar Dysfunction in the Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Canad. J. Neuroscien., 1993 (May), 20 suppl. 3 sl23-126. 7. Parkin, A. J., Dunn, J. C., Lee, C., OHara, P. F. , Nissbaum, L. Neuropsychological Sequelae of Wernickes Encephalopathy in a 20-Year-Old womanhood Selective Impairment of a Frontal Memory System. Brain Cognition, 1993 (Jan), 21(1) 1-19 8. Halliday, G., Ellis, J., Harper, C. The locus Coeruleus and Memory A Study of Chronic Alcoholics With and Without the Memory Impairment of Korsakoffs Syndrome. Brain Research, 1992 (Dec), 598 33-37. 9. Halliday, G., Ellis, J., Heard, R., Caine, D., Harper, C. Brainstem Serotonergic Neurons in Chronic Alcoholics With and Without the Memory Impairment of Korsakoffs Psychosis. J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol., 1993 (Nov), 52(6)567-579.