PEDIATRICS Vol. 51 No. 4 April 1973, pp. 750-751
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Thiamine Deficiency: Probable Wernicke's Encephalopathy Successfully Treated in a Child With Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

Narayan Shah M.D.1 and James A. Wolff M.D.1

1 Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York

The classical clinical picture of the syndrome described by Wernicke1 consists of disturbances of consciousness, ophthalmoplegia, and ataxia. It has been ascribed to thiamine deficiency, although other dietary deficiencies may contribute to its development. The fullblown triad is frequently not present, a confused state often being the only manifestation. This may progress to stupor or coma. The condition has been described in adults with alcoholism, in chronic gastrointestinal disease, in prisoners of war maintained on very precarious diets and in obese patients kept on restricted diets without adequate vitamin supplementation.2

Guerrero3 in 1949 reported two infants with Wernicke's syndrome due to vitamin B deficiency.