Brain MRI detection of early Wernicke's encephalopathy in a hemodialysis patient

Daiki Aomura; Yukifumi Kurasawa; Makoto Harada; Koji Hashimoto; Yuji Kamijo

doi:10.1002/ccr3.5539

Brain MRI detection of early Wernicke's encephalopathy in a hemodialysis patient

Clin Case Rep. 2022 Mar 3;10(3):e05539. doi: 10.1002/ccr3.5539. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Authors

Daiki Aomura^{1

2}, Yukifumi Kurasawa^{1

3}, Makoto Harada¹, Koji Hashimoto¹, Yuji Kamijo¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nephrology Shinshu University School of Medicine Matsumoto Japan.
² Department of Health Promotion Medicine Shinshu University School of Medicine Matsumoto Japan.
³ Department of Internal Medicine Yodakubo Hospital Nagawa Japan.

Abstract

A 93-year-old hemodialysis patient became hospitalized for thiamine deficiency-induced appetite loss and ultimately experienced consciousness disorder diagnosed as Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE). Since brain MRI on admission was retrospectively found to display faint WE findings, careful brain MRI assessment is recommended in hemodialysis patients with appetite loss alone.

Keywords: appetite loss; brain magnetic resonance imaging; end‐stage renal disease; thiamine deficiency; wernicke's encephalopathy.