Marchiafava-Bignami disease: two cases with favourable outcome

Marchiafava-Bignami disease (MBD) is a rare disorder of an unknown aetiolog y but strongly associated with alcoholism. MBD primarily affects the corpus callosum leading to confusion, dysarthria, seizures and frequently to deat h. Over 250 cases from all races and from almost all nationalities have bee n reported, most cases being alcoholics. We report two cases with a favoura ble outcome. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated a typical lesion of the corpus callosum, in both patients. The patients, a 44-year-old male and a 40-year-old female, presented with depressed consciousness and a var iety of other symptoms, but finally made a reasonably good recovery leading to home discharge. To the best of our knowledge, only one additional case of MBD from Scandinavia has been published. As alcoholism is a major public health problem in Scandinavia, we assume that MBD is underdiagnosed and/or under-reported. Non-specific general symptoms and encephalopathy in an alc oholic may harbour undiagnosed MBD. We suggest that the incidence of MBD ma y be higher and its prognosis may be milder than generally believed.