Studies on thiamine deficiency due to bacterial thiaminase. III. Further investigations on thiaminase disease.

Abstract

Thiaminase disease patients with beriberi symptoms can be often found in clinics. Even though the patients suffering from thiaminase disease are symptom-free clinically, they are never healthy from the viewpoint of blood thiamine or a load test of excess thiamine.Thiamine deficiency in the diet contributes to a rapid development of beriberi in thiaminase disease patients. The patients, even if symptom-free, are shown to have lower carbon dioxide level in the whole blood than the healthy subjects. The same is also the case with BMM carriers. Thiamine decomposition by base exchange reaction takes place in the intestine of the patients. Thiaminase disease and beriberi caused by BMM can be cured by oral administration of homosulfanilamide in succession for a few days or administration of preparations of lactic acid bacteria in succession for a long period.