High ethanol intake and malnutrition in alcoholic cerebellar shrinkage

To determine the influence of chronic ethanol intake and nutritional status on cerebellar shrinkage in alcoholism, we studied 12 undernourished patien ts with acute Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE), 12 undernourished and 24 well -nourished asymptomatic chronic alcoholics, and 24 age-matched well-nourish ed controls, using morphometric analysis of MRI scans with volumetry of the cerebellum. Alcoholics reported a mean daily intake of ethanol of 177+/-8g over a period of 27+/-1 years. Most undernourished alcoholics and half of the well-nourished alcoholics, compared to one-tenth of the controls, showe d a significant reduction in cerebellar volume (p less than or equal to 0.0 1, both). Alcoholics with cerebellar shrinkage (n=33) were older (p=0.05) a nd tended to report greater daily ethanol intake than alcoholics without ce rebellar shrinkage (n=15), although not significantly so (p=0.09). Cerebell ar volume correlated negatively with age in controls and asymptomatic alcoh olics (r greater than or equal to 0.52, p less than or equal to 0.01, both) , with a significantly greater shrinkage for age in the latter (p=0.003). L ogistic regression analysis showed that malnutrition (OR 6.6 [95%Cl 1.7-25. 6], p=0.005) and a daily ethanol intake of more than 140 g over ten years ( OR 6.1 [95%Cl 1.8-20.5], p=0.003) were independently associated with the de velopment of cerebellar shrinkage.