Two Cases of Wernicke Encephalopathy with Focal Cerebral Cortical Involvement and Convulsive Seizure

J Korean Neurol Assoc > Volume 22(5); 2004 > Article

Journal of the Korean Neurological Association 2004;22(5): 539-544.

국소 대뇌피질 침범과 운동성 간질발작을 보인 베르니케 뇌병증 2예

권영미, 김지언 권오대 도진국 이동국

대구가톨릭대학교 의과대학 신경과학교실

Two Cases of Wernicke Encephalopathy with Focal Cerebral Cortical Involvement and Convulsive Seizure

Young-Mi Kweon

Department of Neurology, Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea

Abstract

We report two cases of Wernicke encephalopathy presenting with convulsive seizures. The first patient had been supplied with total parenteral nutrition due to acute pancreatitis and presented with partial seizure evolving to generalized seizure. The second patient had been malnourished due to alcoholism and recent dyspepsia after a gastrectomy, who presented with generalized seizure. Brain MRI revealed high-signal lesions in the focal cerebral cortex on T2-weighted, FLAIR, and diffusion-weighted images. After a thiamine injection, the patients recovered and abnormalities on the MRIs disappeared. Key Words: Wernicke encephalopathy, Seizures, Cerebral cortex