title: A case report: Non-alcoholic Wernicke encephalopathy associated with polyneuropathy.
abstract: We report a rare case of non-alcoholic Wernicke encephalopathy (WE) with polyneuropathy. A 24-year-old woman who had recently served a 4-month prison sentence and underwent a short period of dieting manifested slow response, weakness, language disorder and amnesia. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed typical lesions of WE. Examination of nerve conduction velocity revealed sensory-motor axonal polyneuropathy. The patient was immediately treated with thiamine. Neurological symptoms were alleviated in a few days and abnormal signals were markedly decreased in a follow-up MRI 1 week later. Polyneuropathy symptoms ameliorated during hospital therapy and significantly improved after 4 months. This case suggests that WE may be associated with polyneuropathy in non-alcoholic patients. Early thiamine treatment in symptomatic patients may improve prognosis.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Center, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Hudong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Pediatrics, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Center, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Ling-Ling
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Center, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Jinming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Center, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin University, Changchun, China.|3 Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Center, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009431:Neural Conduction; D011115:Polyneuropathies / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014899:Wernicke Encephalopathy / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Polyneuropathy; Wernicke encephalopathy