Beriberi Polyneuritis

Beriberi (characterized by nerve involvement - peripheral neuritis), Wernicke s encephalopathy (characterized by ophthalmoplegia, polyneuritis and mental disorientation). 

Diseases and disorders resulting from a deficiency of thiamine include beriben, opisthotonos (in birds), polyneuritis, hyperesthesia, bradycardia, and edema. Rather than a specific disease, beriberi may be described as a clinical state resulting from a thiamine deficiency. In body cells, thiamine pyrophosphate is required for removing carbon dioxide from various substances, including pyruvic acid. Actually, this is accomplished by a decarboxylase of which thiamine pyrophosphate is a part. Where... 

The classical deficiency syndrome is beriberi, characterized by anorexia, weakness, constipation, progressive polyneuritis, cardiac insufficiency, and either edema or wasting of muscles.29 The recommended daily allowance is 1.1 to 1.4 mg.112... 

Thiamine (= Vitamin B ) (pyrimidinylmethyl thiazole) dietary deficiency yields beriberi involving oedema, pain, neuritis, paralysis death detected by Christiaan Eijkman as polyneuritis in hens fed polished rice isolated from polishings by Jansen Donath... 

In Eijkman s laboratory he noticed that some of the fowl he was experimenting with developed paralysis and polyneuritis, as in the dry form of beriberi. The director of the hospital forbade Eijkman from feeding these birds with table scraps which consisted mainly of polished rice. He therefore began to feed them with whole rice, after which he noticed that they regained their movement and there was no recurrence of paralysis. 

In 1912, Funk described a substance, present in rice polishings and in foods, that cured polyneuritis in birds and beriberi in humans. This substance was referred to as vium-ine becau.se it was characterized as an amine and as a vital nuuitional component. After other food factors were noted to be vital nutritional components that were not amines and did not even contain nitrogen. Drummond. suggested the modification that led to the term viiamin. McCollum and... 

Long term usage of ethanol enhances the metabolic removal of vitamin B. (thiamin pyrophosphate). B deficiencies are known to result in polyneuritis, a neurological disorder, and beriberi, a cardiac problem. 

Thiamine, a water-soluble vitamin, is indicated in beriberi, anemia secondary to thiamine deficiency, polyneuritis secondary to alcoholism, pregnancy or pellagra, Wernicke s encephalopathy, and wet beri-beri with myocardial failure. 

Thiamine occurs in yeast, in rice husk and other cereals. Deficiency of vitamin Bj causes beriberi and damage to the nervous system (polyneuritis). The daily adult intake should be about 1 mg vitamin B. ... 

This psychosis, along with beriberi and polyneuritis, results from a deficiency of thiamine, not of vitamin K. 

Supplement vitamin Bi deficiency states, impaired absorption or increased requirements (pregnancy, lactation, alcoholism) Therapy beriberi, Wernicke s encephalopathy, neuritis, polyneuritis (alcoholic and toxic), neuralgia, myalgia, myocardia, disorders of the intermediate metabolism Thiamine chloride and hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, cocarboxylase, thiamine pyrophosphate Tablets, sugar-coated pills, dragees, ampules 50-300 mg 0.3-1.2 mg 1.0-1.4 mg... 

Another disease resulting from a deficiency is beriberi, which has been known in China for more than 1,000 years. It occurs above aU in southern and eastern Asia, but also in Alaska, Brazil, South Africa, the Congo and Senegal. The ailment is caused by a slow degeneration ofthe peripheral nerves (manifesting as polyneuritis in birds). The first symptom is the beginning of impaired sensory perception in the skin of the lower limbs, followed by muscle weakness, especially in the legs, but in severe cases also in hips and hands, and finally dropsy and heart weakness. Untreated, the illness leads to death. On account of... 

A syndrome called beriberi, characterized by edema and polyneuritis, has been known for a long time. Although beriberi is a multifactor deficiency, thiamine deficiency is mainly responsible for the disease. 

A variety of clinical forms of beriberi have been described, but the disease is usually classified as wet or dry. The wet form is usually a combination of edema (probably a consequence of congestive heart failure) and polyneuritis [62-64]. 

Microorganisms, fungi and plants synthesize thiamin but animals have to rely on exogenous dietary sources. In the absence of adequate thiamin intake, thiamin deficiency results in specific diseases. The typical thiamin deficiency syndrome in humans is beriberi, characterized by polyneuritis and paralysis of... 

The archetype of primary thiamin deficiency disease is beriberi, a polyneuritis, rapidly reversible upon thiamin administration. 

Another ten years were to elapse before Funk gave the name of vitamine to the substance whose absence from foodstuffs was responsible for the development of polyneuritis . Later the term vitamin(e) was applied to the whole group of organic compounds, small amounts of which are essential to the health of man and beast. The various vitamins were distinguished by prefixes or subscripts, and later still by giving them names from which the word vitamin had disappeared completely. As years went by, the substance connected with polyneuritis has been called vitamine, vitamine B, vitamin Bi, oryzanin, toruline, antineuritic vitamin, anti-beriberi vitamin... 

Ever since his first observations on polyneuritis gallinarum in 1890, Eijk-man was aware of the resemblance between this disease of fowls and human beriberi. Vorderman obtained more certainty for a common basis of these two diseases in 1896, when he established that in prisons in Java where poUshed rice was the staple diet beriberi was far more frequent than in prisons where unpolished rice was provided. 

In 1897 Eijkman, a Dutch doctor in Java, noticed that domestic fowls fed on scraps from the food of prisoners which consisted mainly of polished rice developed symptoms of polyneuritis. This condition in which there is inflammation of the peripheral nerves was very similar to beriberi, a disease from which some of the prisoners suffered. When whole grain instead of polished rice was given the birds recovered. Eijkman then showed that a substance was present in very small amounts in the husk and germ of the rice that protected the birds. These and other findings led to the discovery of vitamin Bi ... 

In beriberi, which is less common in the East now that its aetiology has been established, local accumulation of pyruvate and lactate may cause vasodilatation and oedema. The wet form of the disease is characterized by oedema and heart failure and the dry form by polyneuritis and paralysis but no oedema. 

Beriberi, which affects the nervous system, was known to the Chinese as early as 2600 B.C. The word beriberi means / cannot, referring to the fact that persons with the diseeise cannot move easily. But the cause of beriberi in man, and of polyneuritis—the counterpart in poultry—remained elusive for centuries. 

In 1897, Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch physician, working in a military hospital in the East Indies, produced polyneuritis, a condition resembling beriberi, in chickens, pigeons, and ducks by feeding polished rice which he wron ully attributed to too much starch. 

Fig. T-10. Polyneuritis (inflammation of the nerves) in the chick, the counterpart of beriberi in man, caused by thiamin (B-1) deficiency. Note the characteristic head retraaion. (Courtesy, H. R. Bird, Department of Poultry Science, University of Wisconsin)...

Clinical Effects of Thiamin Deficiency. If a deficiency of thiamin is not corrected (if thiamin is not present in sufficient amounts to provide the key energizing coenzyme factor in the cells), the clinical effects will be reflected in the gastrointestinal system, the nervous system, and the cardiovascular system. Severe thiamin deficiency of long duration will culminate in beriberi, the symptoms of which are polyneuritis (inflammation of the nerves), emaciation and/or edema, and disturbances of heart function. 

Thiamine Pyrophosphate is the coenzyme responsible for transferring active acetaldehyde and active glycolaldehyde. Simultaneously, it acts as co-decarboxylase, i.e. as the coenzyme for a lyase. The characteristic component is thiamine (vitamin Bi), one of the vitamins whose biologic role has been known longest the symptoms of thiamine deficiency (beriberi in man polyneuritis in animals) comprised one of the starting points in the study of vitamins. The name thiamine refers to its sulfur content. 

Beriberi is the deficiency disease. It appears in individuals on an exclusive diet of polished rice, and results in neuritic symptoms and disturbances of heart functions. Some of the deficiency symptoms can be explained on the basis of the role of the vitamin in metabolism. Similar symptoms can be evoked artificially in birds (polyneuritis). Some evidence points to a role of thiamine in neural physiology in any case, nerves contain unusually large amounts of thiamine. 

Dry beriberi is essentially a chronic condition showing muscular atrophy and polyneuritis and frequently occurring in older adults. Walking is usually difficult because of the weak wasted and... 

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