[Alcohol, acid, vitamins and heart].

We report on a 67-year-old male patient with chronic alcoholism, who presented with acute dyspnea, a strongly reduced left ventricular cardiac function and a severe lactic acidosis. In face of a low thiamine serum level and a rapid improvement after parenteral thiamine administration we were able to diagnose a Shoshin-Beriberi syndrome with cardiogenic shock and reversible dilated cardiomyopathy. The epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinics and treatment of the rare cardiac manifestation of this vitamine deficiency are discussed.