Medical Image of the Week: MRI of Wernicke’s Encephalopathy

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 2:24PM
Rick Robbins, M.D. in MRI, Wernicke's encepaholopathy, brain, thalmic enhancement

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

Article originally appeared on Southwest Journal of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep (https://www.swjpcc.com/).