Thiamine and Cocarboxylase Concentration in Heart, Liver, and Kidney, of Patients with Heart Failure

Abstract

Tissues were obtained at autopsy from 12 patients dying of congestive heart failure and from 10 control patients with miscellaneous causes of death without heart failure. Analyses of thiamine and cocarboxylase contents were made on liver, kidney, and left ventricular myocardium. In 6 instances, the measurements were made in relation to the N content per gram of tissue and, in the entire group, the data were derived from wet tissues. In the 6 cardiac and 6 controls in whom the results were expressed in terms of micrograms per gram of tissue N the mean values for heart muscle were 17.25 and 7.14 for thiamine and cocarboxylase, respectively, in the cardiac group, and 56.7 and 32.03 in the control groups. These differences were statistically highly significant. The same significant differences were found for measurements made on wet tissues. In the liver and kidney tissues, the cardiac patients had lower values for thiamine and cocarboxylase as compared to the non-cardiac control patients; however, the differences were statistically significant for total thiamine in the liver tissue. Reduced thiamine and cocarboxylase contents of heart muscle may have a possible influence on myocardial metabolism in heart failure.