beriberi, beri beri

A specific nutritional deficiency syndrome occurring in endemic form in eastern and southern Asia, sporadically in other parts of the world without reference to climate, and sometimes in alcoholics, resulting mainly from a dietary deficiency of thiamine; the “dry” form is characterized by painful polyneuritis; sensory nerves are more likely to be affected than motor nerves, with symptoms beginning in the feet and working upward with the hands affected late in the course of the disease; the “wet” form is characterized by edema resulting from a high-output form of heart failure. SEE ALSO: nutritional polyneuropathy. SYN: endemic neuritis. [Singhalese, extreme weakness]

- dry b. paraplegic b., affecting chiefly the peripheral nerves; its clinical pattern is predominantly that of a polyneuropathy without associated congestive failure.

- infantile b. b. appearing in a breast-fed infants whose mother has b. due to thiamin deficiency. It is mainly the "wet" form of b., characterized by heart failure with marked peripheral edema (which is otherwise unusual in heart failure in infancy). An often fatal disease, acute in onset, which was formerly common in the Far Eastern countries where rice is consumed; reversible with thiamin.

- ship b. a form of thiamine deficiency seen among sailors.

- wet b. edematous b., in which congestive heart failure occurs in addition to polyneuropathy.