Alcoholic pellagra encephalopathy combined with Wernicke disease

ABSTRACT

Clinical and postmortem findings of a case that had combined alcoholic pellagra encephalopathy and Wernicke disease are described. This 51-year-old malnourished and chronic alcoholic man presented with progressive mental deterioration, pellagra dermatitis, hypertonus of the neck and other musculatures, myoclonic jerks with bizarre involuntary movements, in addition to total external ophthalmoplegia and gait disturbance. After administration of multivitamins, including thiamine and nicotinamide, these neurologic abnormalities were dramatically improved in a few days. However, the patient died thereafter because of sepsis associated with pneumonia. Postmortem examination revealed marked abnormalities in CNS, characterized by diffuse atrophy of gray matter and widespread neuronal degeneration and characteristic central chromatolysis in pontine nuclei, dentate nuclei, cranial nerve nuclei in the brain stem, Betz cells of the cerebral cortex, and Clarke's column and anterior horn cells of the spinal cord. There were also atrophy and gliosis of the mammillary bodies, degeneration and vascular proliferation of periaqueductal gray matter, and massive gliosis around the third ventricle. These neuropathological changes were compatible with symptoms of both alcoholic pellagra encephalopathy and Wernicke's disease, but they were also strongly suspected on clinical grounds.