US EPA

1512207 

Journal Article 

An international perspective on the prevalence of the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome 

Harper, C; Fornes, P; Duyckaerts, C; Lecomte, D; Hauw, JJ 

1995 

1 

Metabolic Brain Disease
ISSN: 0885-7490
EISSN: 1573-7365 

10 

1 

17-24 

7596325 

10.1007/bf01991779 

WOS:A1995QQ01200004 

http://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF01991779
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In the Western world previous studies have shown that the
majority of cases of the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS), which is caused by thiamine
deficiency, occur in alcoholics. However, in France, a country with one of the highest per capita
consumptions of alcohol, the prevalence of the WKS was found to be only 0.4% in a small
retrospective autopsy study. This figure is compared with data sent to the authors by a number of
neuropathologists from the U.S.A., Europe, Scandinavia and Australia. There was no obvious
correlation between the prevalence rates of the WKS, which were highest in Australia (2.8% -
previously published), and per capita consumption of alcohol. Other issues such as diet, National
programs for supplementation of foods with thiamine, and drinking habits are considered. The
pathological diagnosis of the WKS can often be made on macroscopic examination of the brain after
fixation in formalin. The mammillary bodies are smaller than normal in most cases of chronic WKS.
However in this study it was found that the most common causes of small mammillary bodies were
Alzheimer's disease and atrophy due to transneuronal degeneration secondary to lesions in the
hippocampus. 

THIAMINE DEFICIENCY; WERNICKE-KORSAKOFF SYNDROME; PREVALENCE; INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE; PATHOLOGY