MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING IN ALCOHOLIC KORSAKOFF'S SYNDROME: EVIDENCE FOR AN ASSOCIATION WITH ALCOHOLIC DEMENTIA

A magnetic resonance imaging study of 19 alcoholic Korsakoff patients, 17 non-amnesic alcoholics and 23 non-alcoholic controls was undertaken. Several measures of ventricular size and interhemispheric area were significantly greater in the Korsakoff patients. Interhemispheric fissure size was greate...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford) 1996-09, Vol.31 (5), p.479-486
Main Authors: EMSLEY, ROBIN, SMITH, ROGER, ROBERTS, MIMI, KAPNIAS, SHARON, PIETERS, HUIBRIE, MARITZ, STEPHAN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Alcohol Amnestic Disorder - diagnosis
Alcohol Amnestic Disorder - pathology
Alcoholic dementia
Alcoholism - diagnosis
Alcoholism - pathology
Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning
Atrophy
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - pathology
Caudate Nucleus - pathology
Cerebral Cortex - pathology
Cerebral Ventricles - pathology
Dementia - diagnosis
Dementia - pathology
Diencephalon - pathology
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Female
Humans
Korsakoff's syndrome
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Psychoses, Alcoholic - diagnosis
Psychoses, Alcoholic - pathology
Relationship
Toxicology
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A magnetic resonance imaging study of 19 alcoholic Korsakoff patients, 17 non-amnesic alcoholics and 23 non-alcoholic controls was undertaken. Several measures of ventricular size and interhemispheric area were significantly greater in the Korsakoff patients. Interhemispheric fissure size was greater in the non-amnesic alcoholics than the non-alcoholic controls. Cortical grey matter T1 values were essentially the same for the three groups, whereas the deep grey and the white matter T1 values for the Korsakoff patients were significantly greater than the non-alcoholic controls. These results indicate widespread cerebral atrophy in alcoholic Korsakoff patients, which is largely subcortical and does not develop independently of the diencephalic pathology. Alcoholic dementia may be a more severe form of alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome, aetiologically related to the nutritionally-induced diencephalic pathology, rather than the neurotoxic effects of alcohol on the cortex.
ISSN:0735-0414
1464-3502
DOI:10.1093/oxfordjournals.alcalc.a008182