Abstract
Vitamin B_1 deficiency was found in a case of cerebral palsy, 5 years old male, who was malnourished and characterized by edema in the legs and large heart shadow in X-ray examination. The laboratory finding showed a low thiamin level in the whole blood and high lactate and pyruvate levels in the plasma. From this finding of the case, a study on further estimation of vitamin B_1 deficiency was undertaken in the children with severe cerebral palsy (C.P. group; 13 cases), as compared to the control children (20 cases). 1) A decreased thiamin level in the whole blood and a lower activity of transketolase in the hemolysate was observed in the C.P. group, as compared to the control group. (P<0.05) 2) The thiamin pyrophosphate effect and plasma pyruvate and lactate levels were significantly higher in the C.P. group than in the control group. (P<0.05) 3) There were found two cases of latent vitamin B_1 deficiency in the C.P. group, while no cases in the control group. From this finding of a high incidence of vitamin B_1 deficiency in the severe cerebral palsy children, an active attention to adequate dietary intake of vitamin B_1 should be required in such patients.
