Pyruvate metabolism in peripheral neuritis

It has been known for many years that the block in pyruvate metabolism resulting from a deficiency of thiamine, as outlined above, results in an elevated level of pyruvate in the blood [8, 9]. A pyruvate tolerance test has, therefore, been devised in which a dose of glucose is given by mouth and the blood 

The discovery of the function of thiamine as a co-factor for transketolase activity had led to blood transketolase estimations being used as a further test for thiamine deficiency [17, 18, 19, 20]. 

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