ANEURINE (thiamine) 



levels, and anorexia and increased weakness and paraesthesia of the 

 legs appeared. Only after no days on this regimen did signs of 

 polyneuropathy appear, with sensory loss, loss of tendon reflexes and 

 paralysis of the leg muscles, so that this sign of aneurine deficiency is 

 particularly late in making its appearance ; it can only be cured by 

 weeks of treatment with high doses of aneurine. 



Experiments on the simultaneous administration of aneurine and 

 desiccated thyroid showed ^* that the latter was less efficient in 

 promoting metabolic activity in a state of vitamin B^ deficiency. 

 This may be connected with the observation of other workers ^^ that 

 thyrotoxic patients are unable to store aneurine but excrete large 

 amounts in the urine, faeces and sweat, and the claim that aneurine 

 is of benefit in such cases. 



A comparison of the effects of acute and mild chronic aneurine 

 plus riboflavine deficiency was made by Horwitt et al.^^ They divided 

 their subjects into three groups. The first received a daily diet con- 

 taining 2200 cals. and sufficient vitamins, with the exception of 

 aneurine (400 fxg. per day) and riboflavine (900 fig. per day). The 

 second group had the same diet, but with 6 mg. of aneurine and 1-3 

 mg. of riboflavine per day. The third group served as a control. In 

 the first group, some dulling of interest and restriction of activity was 

 observed and, within nine months, an abnormally high level of lactic 

 and pyruvic acid was found in the blood after administration of 

 glucose. After two years, the members of the second group were 

 transferred to a diet that supplied 250 fig. of aneurine and 800 fig. of 

 riboflavine daily ; within three months, the blood lactic and pyruvic 

 acids had risen higher than in the first group. Shortly afterwards, 

 clinical symptoms developed — ^non-pitting oedema of the facial skin, 

 budding of the blood vessels into the cornea with plexus formation, 

 decreased vibration sense in the legs and some loss of inhibitory control 

 with exaggeration of psychotic symptoms. Immediate recovery 

 occurred when 6 mg. of aneurine per day were administered. 



The effects of a combined deficiency of aneurine, riboflavine and 

 nicotinic acid were studied by Keys et al.'^'^ One group of young men 

 lived for 161 days on a diet that supplied only o-6i mg. of aneurine, 

 0*95 mg. of riboflavine and 12-2 mg. of nicotinic acid per day, whilst 

 another group subsisted on a diet that supplied rather more of the 

 vitamins. No serious deficiency symptoms developed. When the 

 vitamin intake of some of the subjects was reduced to 0-032 mg. of 

 aneurine, 0-052 mg. of riboflavine and 0-4 mg. of nicotinic acid per day, 

 however, symptoms of vitamin B^ deficiency appeared, and were 

 quickly relieved by administration of aneurine. Thus, aneurine 

 deficiency is probably the first to manifest itself in a multiple vitamin 

 deficiency (see page 607). 



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