Vitamin B-1, B-2 and B-6 deficiencies in geriatric patients, measured by coenzyme stimulation of enzyme activities.

The vitamin B-1, B-2 and B-6 nutritional status of 153 geriatric patients was determined by measurement of the activities of transketolase (TK), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) from hemolyzed erythrocytes before and after in vitro stimulation with their respective coenzymes. The change in enzyme activity after incubation of the hemolysate with the coenzyme was used to determine the activation coefficient, which was taken as an index for the vitamin B-1, B-2 and B-6 nutritional status. Determination of the normal values in 54 healthy blood donors showed that activation coefficients of TK greater than 1.27 indicated a biochemical vitamin B-1 deficiency. Activation coefficients of GR greater than 1.29 and GOT greater than 1.86 indicated, respectively, deficiencies of vitamins B-2 and B-6. On the basis of these findings 22.9% of the geriatric patients appeared to suffer from vitamin B-1 deficiency, 11.7% from vitamin B-2 deficiency and 19.0% from vitamin B-6 deficiency. Of the total number of patients, 44% showed a deficiency of one or more of these three vitamins. Oral administration of vitamin B-1 (20 mg/day), vitamin B-2 (10 mg/day) and vitamin B-6 (20 mg/day) for twelve days normalized nearly all activation coefficients. Determination of enzyme activities without coenzyme stimulation revealed significantly lower values in the deficient patients as compared with the blood donors. However, the distribution of activities for both groups overlapped to a great extent. Oral administration of vitamins raised the enzyme activities to normal values.