Chorea induced by thiamine deficiency in hemodialysis patients.

Thiamine deficiency is mainly encountered in alcoholics or food faddists, but it may complicate chronic dialysis because of low intake and accelerated loss of thiamine in dialysis patients. We report here 2 hemodialysis (HD) patients who developed chorea induced by thiamine deficiency. We propose that thiamine deficiency, with a consequent dysfunction of the basal ganglia, may induce chorea in HD patients.