Abstract
There have been many reports on the content of the free and combined formes of thiamine in blood of verious diseases, but only a few which directly estimated cocarboxylase in blood of patients. The author was able to determine cocarboxylase and the so-called cocarboxylase index in blood successfully, using brewers' yeast. The results can be summerized as follows : 1) Cocarboxylase in blood naturally is diminished in the blood of beriberi-patients, but not in cases of ankylostomiasis and diabetes mellitus, although beriberi-alike hypaesthesia in extremities is found very often in latter diseases. 2) The manifest decrease of cocarboxylase in blood was found in pulmonary tuberculosis and malignant tumors, especially cancer of stomach, too. 3) In hepatic diseases the cocarboxylase index usually was not differed from that in healthy people. For the esterification of thiamine with phosphoric acid the liver function might not be excluded entirely but some other important factor must be taken into consideration.
