Osmo Tiirpeinen 5 '79 



so low that the capillary-fragility test can hardly be regarded as a good method 

 for assessing the nutritional status with regard to ascorbic acid. When large 

 groups are examined, it may lead to fairly satisfactory results, but in smaller 

 groups, to say nothing about individuals, the results obtained must often be 

 grossly erroneous. In keeping with this low correlation is the observation that 

 treatment with ascorbic acid often fails to return the increased capillary 

 fragility to normal and to prevent the normal resistance from falling. 



It is thus evident that ascorbic acid cannot be the sole factor— and hardly 

 even the primary factor— controlling capillary resistance in apparently healthy 

 human beings. What the other factors are cannot, of course, be said on the 

 basis of the evidence presented here. In this connection it seems, however, 

 proper to refer to the recent investigations on vitamin P. Whatever the much 

 disputed role of this factor is in the experimental scurvy of the guinea pig, it 

 cannot be denied that in human beings vitamin P has frequently been found 

 efficacious in returning increased capillary fragility to normal and in checking 

 a tendency to bleed.^' ""■ ■'■ "* The view^ that human scurvy often should be 

 regarded as due to a combined lack of both ascorbic acid and vitamin P, of 

 which the latter would be the chief factor controlling capillary fragility, may 

 prove correct. In view of the existence of such capillary controlling factors 

 other than ascorbic acid, which possibly play a significant role in the etiology 

 of scurvy, the capillary-fragility test may still remain a useful means of detect- 

 ing subclinical scurvy^ although it undoubtedly is a poor index of ascorbic 



acid sub nutrition. 



Summary 



The correlation between capillary fragility and the ascorbic acid content of 

 the diet was studied in 616 apparently healthy persons. The correlation co- 

 efficient was found to be: ?■ = —0.155 ±: 0.040 (S.E.). Although of a low degree, 

 the correlation thus was certainly statistically significant. 



In an experiment with a group of fifty-four elementary school children, 

 treatment with 100 mg. of ascorbic acid daily for fifty days seemed to improve 

 capillary resistance. This improvement, however, was so irregular that no 

 statistically significant difference in the capillary status could be found be- 

 tween the treated group and the control group at the end of the experimental 

 period. 



It was concluded that, in general, increased capillary fragility is not a de- 

 pendable sign of ascorbic acid subnutrition. It is evident that ascorbic acid 

 cannot be the sole— and hardly even the primary— factor controlling capillary 

 resistance in apparently healthy human beings. 



REFERENCES 



1. Crandon, J. H.; Lund, C. C, and Dill, D. B.: New England Jl. Med. 223:353, 1940. 



2. Goettsch, E.: Amer. Jl. Diseases Childr. 49:1441, 1935. 



3. Scarborough, H.: Lancet 239:644, 1940. 



