Clinical Study Title:
Clinical Study Title: Thiamine deficiency and unexplained encephalopathy in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients.

Plain English Summary:

Brain swelling, or encephalopathy, is a serious side effect of many diseases, including renal disease. The direct cause is often unknown, but a thiamine deficiency is suspected. This study looked at the link between thiamine deficiency and the risk of brain swelling in patients with renal disease. Many of these patients had abnormalities in their brain at the beginning of the study. These patients were given thiamine supplements to compensate. In all but one of these patients, the thiamine supplementation corrected the brain swelling and the symptoms alleviated completely. This suggests that for diseases such as renal disease which put patients at risk for encephalopathy, a thiamine supplements should be administered.

Authors

Hung SC. Hung SH. Tarng DC. Yang WC. Chen TW. Huang TP.

Institution

Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, TaipeiVeterans General Hospital, Taiwan.

Country of Publication

United States

Source

American Journal of Kidney Diseases. 38(5):941-7, 2001 Nov.