HEALTH NEWS

Study Title:

THE ROLE OF THE CHOLINERGIC SYSTEM IN THIAMIN DEFICIENCY.

Study Abstract

Metabolic encephalopathies are a group of disorders in which systemic changes alter brain funciton. They include hypoxia, hypoglycemia, hyperammonemia, some inborn errors of metabolism, heavy metal intoxication, and nutritional deficits such as thiamin deficiency. The metabolic encephalopathies share common clinical signs and sympots (Table 1). An initial loss of interest and attentiveness progresses to diminished orientation, cognition, memory, and perception; obtundation is followed by stupor, coma, and finally death. This sterotyped clinical pattern, despite diverse etioloties, suggest a common pathophysiological mechanism(s). Thiamin deficiency has been rrecognized as a classical model of a metabolic encephalopathy since the early 1930s.