Thiamine level in the elderly patients with heart failure

Abstract

Purpose: Although thiamine deficiency has been reported to occur in patients with heart failure (HF), there were few reports regarding the prevalence of thiamine deficiency in elderly HF patients. Method: Blood thiamine and other clinical parameters were measured in patients with compensated (n = 22) and uncompensated (n = 23) HF. As a control, thiamine were measured from patients without HF (n = 12). Results: There was no difference in thiamine level among the three groups (compensated HF: 36.0 ± 2.8 ng/ml, decompensated HF:37.3 ± 3.4, control: 40.3 ± 6.9: normal range: 20–50 ng/ml: mean ± SE). However, more than 15% of patients among three groups were under normal range (compensated HF: 17.4%, decompensated HF: 18.2%, control: 16.7%). Thiamine level in patients with HF were not depend on the dose of the diuretics. Only one patient had apparent beriberi heart failure, whose thiamine level was lowest in all patients (10 ng/ml). Conclusion: To make diagnosis of beriberi heart failure depending solely on the blood thiamine level could be misleading in elderly patients. Evaluation of the response to VitB1 supplement and clinical findings such as peripheral neuropathy could be also important.