Thiamine deficiency in diabetes — is diet relevant?

Abstract

2 To this end, we aimed to investigate the relationship between thiamine intake and status in people with diabetes in Perth, Australia. Subjects were 113 people with diabetes (58 type 1, 55 type 2; duration of diabetes 19.3+12.0 years (y)). Of these patients, 70 (mean age 58.5+13.0 y) were not taking and 43 (mean age 55.9+15.9 y) were taking thiamine supplemen- tation. Body mass index (BMI), glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1C) and urinary albumin excretion (UA), which may be modifiers of thiamine status, were not significantly different between the two groups (BMI 28.7+6.0 and 28.9+5.3 kg/m 2 , respectively; HbA1C 7.9+1.5% and 7.8+1.4%, respectively; UA 13.9+35.9 mg/L and 10.9+28.0 mg/L, respectively). Dietary thiamine intake was estimated by vali- dated 24-hour recall, using the NUTTAB 95 database FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand) for Australian foods, and compared with Australian Recommended Dietary Intakes (RDI) (1.1 mg/d females, 1.2 mg/d males). 7 Red cell and serum thiamine were used as indices of thiamine status. 8,9 Dietary intake was categorised as RDI and supplemented > 4 mg/d; and red cell thiamine was categorised as < normal range (190-400 nmol/L)