Wednesday
Feb132013
Medical Image of the Week: MRI of Wernicke’s Encephalopathy
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 2:24PM
Figure 1: Thalamic enhancement (arrows)
A 61 year old male presented to the ED with altered mental status after being found down at home with several beer cans around him. He was noted to have horizontal nystagmus on hospital day 2 and a MRI was performed. MRI showed bilateral thalamic enhancement (Figure 1, arrows) on flair imaging consistent with Wernicke’s encephalopathy. His thiamine dose was increased with improvement in his mental status.
Nathaniel Reyes, MD and Jarrod Mosier, MD
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Arizona Respiratory Center
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ
Reference as: Reyes N, Mosier J. Medical image of the week: MRI of Wernicke's encephalopathy. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2013;6(2):83. PDF
Reader Comments