Occidental Beriberi With Cardiovascular Manifestations

In 1936 we¹described the existence of "wet" beriberi with cardiovascular disturbances as a nutritional disease of regular occurrence in Boston and its vicinity. We presented evidence indicating that this disease is related to vitamin B deficiency and that administration of thiamin chloride or vitamin B concentrate benefits patients with this condition. Since this first report, further studies have been conducted on the clinical, physiologic and chemical characteristics of beriberi and on its treatment.²We have induced cardiac disturbances in animals fed on a thiamin-deficient diet and demonstrated that their cardiac disturbances disappeared promptly following the administration of thiamin chloride.³We have investigated the metabolism of the myocardium in vitamin B₁deficiency⁴and made a systematic search to evaluate the role of certain intermediary metabolic products, such as lactic acid, pyruvic acid, methyl glyoxal, glyceraldehyde and adenylic acid, in the induction of cardiac disturbances.⁵