Background: Thiamine deficiency disease may occur in infants from thiamine-deficient mothers in developing countries, as well as in infants fed solely with soy-based formula. Thiamine deficiency in infants may present with acute neurological manifestations of infantile encephalitic beriberi.
Objective: To review the role of noncontrast CT brain findings in infantile encephalitic beriberi in early diagnosis.
Materials and methods: A retrospective review of noncontrast CT scans of the brain in 21 infants with acute-onset infantile encephalitic beriberi was carried out.
Results: On noncontrast-enhanced CT brain, hypodense lesions were seen symmetrically in the putamen in all the babies; symmetric hypodensities were seen in the caudate nuclei in 14/21 (67%), in dorsomedial thalami/hypothalamic/subthalamic area in 4/21 (19%), and in the globi pallidi in 2/21 (9.5%) of the infants.
Conclusion: Recognition of symmetrical hypodense lesions in the basal ganglia and medial thalami/hypothalamic/subthalamic area on noncontrast CT scan of the brain are important early features to recognize in encephalitic beriberi in at-risk infants.
Advances in knowledge: IEBB is a cause of hypodense bilateral basal ganglia and may be identified by this finding in the appropriate clinical settings.
Keywords: Basal ganglia; Infantile encephalitic beriberi; Infants; Noncontrast CT; Thiamine; Wernicke encephalopathy.
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.