THIAMINE STATUS OF ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH CARDIAC-FAILURE INCLUDING THE EFFECTS OF SUPPLEMENTATION

This study compared the thiamine status of 35 elderly hospital inpatie nts with cardiac failure (CF) with that of 35 elderly in-patients with other diagnoses (Non-CF). The CF group was then randomly allocated to CF1 group (thiamine treatment, 200 mg per day for 7 days), and CF2 gr oup (non supplemented). The effect of the thiamine treatment on the ca rdiac failure course was examined. Although there was no significant d ifference in thiamine status between CF and Non-CF groups, 11.5% of th e first group against only 6.0% of the second was deficient with the t hiamine pyrophosphate stimulation effect (TPPE) test. The same trend w as observed, if NYHA functional assessment was taken into account, thi amine deficiency was more frequent in class 4 than in class 3. No sign ificant difference for thiamin status was observed in patients receivi ng furosemide treatment and those without furosemide treatment. Althou gh vitamin treatment permitted a significant improvement in thiamine s tatus, the course of the cardiopathy was not significantly different i n CF1 (supplemented) and CF2 (non supplemented) groups. Whether system atic thiamine supplementation is indicated in CF patients requires fur ther investigation.