Wernicke encephalopathy in alcoholics with diabetic ketoacidosis.

Wernicke encephalopathy is caused by thiamine deficiency in the central nervous system, and is defined by the triad of confusional symptoms, ocular alterations and ataxia. Some other factors may also predispose alcoholic patients to this deficiency. We report two patients with hyperglicaemia and ketoacidosis due to diabetes mellitus decompensation and chronic alcoholism who developed Wernicke encephalopathy before their hospital admission.

Biological variability of thyroid autoantibodies (anti-TPO and anti-Tg) in clinically and biochemically stable patients with autoimmune thyroid disease.

The biological variation of anti-TPO and anti-Tg autoantibodies was studied in 17 clinically and biochemically stable female patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), at regular monthly intervals over a period of 6 consecutive months. The mean and standard deviation (SD), within-subject coefficient of variation (CV), between-subject CV, index of individuality, reliability coefficient, and critical differences were as follows: for anti-TPO 238 (197) U/ml, 9.2%, 81.