Clinical Presentations of Nutritional Deficiencies Associated with Alcoholic Liver Disease

A patient with alcoholic liver disease may develop a number of nutritional deficiencies. These may present with a number of clinical findings.

Finding	Deficiency
ageusia (loss of taste)	zinc
anemia	iron, pyridoxine (sideroblastic)
cardiac arrhythmia	phosphorus
cardiomyopathy	magnesium, selenium
delirium tremens	phosphorus
dementia	niacin (pellagra)
diarrhea	niacin (pellagra)
heart failure (high output)	thiamine
increased AST to ALT ratio	pyridoxone
megaloblastic anemia	vitamin B12, folate
neuropathy	thiamine, pyridoxine. vitamin B12
night blindness	vitamin A
osteopenia or osteoporosis	vitamin D, calcium
scurvy	vitamin C
skin changes	vitamin E, zinc, niacin (pellagra), vitamin A
subacute combined degeneration	vitamin B12
Wernicke encephalopathy	thiamine

To read more or access our algorithms and calculators, please log in or register.