The DOI matches its Crossref record; 208 of the 211 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Thiamine deficiency disorders: diagnosis, prevalence, and a roadmap for global control programs
Open accessAbstract
Thiamine is an essential micronutrient that plays a key role in energy metabolism. Many populations worldwide may be at risk of clinical or subclinical thiamine deficiencies, due to famine, reliance on staple crops with low thiamine content, or food preparation practices, such as milling grains and washing milled rice. Clinical manifestations of thiamine deficiency are variable; this, along with the lack of a readily accessible and widely agreed upon biomarker of thiamine status, complicates efforts to diagnose thiamine deficiency and assess its global prevalence. Strategies to identify regions at risk of thiamine deficiency through proxy measures, such as analysis of food balance sheet data and month-specific infant mortality rates, may be valuable for understanding the scope of thiamine deficiency. Urgent public health responses are warranted in high-risk regions, considering the contribution of thiamine deficiency to infant mortality and research suggesting that even subclinical thiamine deficiency in childhood may have lifelong neurodevelopmental consequences. Food fortification and maternal and/or infant thiamine supplementation have proven effective in raising thiamine status and reducing the incidence of infantile beriberi in regions where thiamine deficiency is prevalent, but trial data are limited. Efforts to determine culturally and environmentally appropriate food vehicles for thiamine fortification are ongoing.
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“Beriberi, the disease resulting from severe thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency affects several organs, including the muscular and peripheral nervous systems [99]. General symptoms include fatigue, ataxia due to muscle weakness in the legs and arms, muscle pain and tenderness, and dyspnoea on exertion.”
From Vitamins and Minerals for Energy, Fatigue and Cognition: A Narrative Review of the Biochemical and Clinical Evidence (2020) · cites this paper as [99]
In the citing paper
“An accidental thiamine deficiency in children fed an infant formula erroneously lacking thiamine, resulted in persistent cognitive and motor deficits. Even the children who initially appeared unaffected subsequently displayed a range of cognitive dysfunction, including delayed language acquisition, language impairment and dyslexia, poor coordination skills, and learning disabilities; quoted in [99”
From Vitamins and Minerals for Energy, Fatigue and Cognition: A Narrative Review of the Biochemical and Clinical Evidence (2020) · cites this paper as [99]
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“Cerebral beriberi (thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency) may lead to encephalopathies, characterized by abnormal eye movements, and cognitive impairment, involving a confused, apathetic state and a profound memory disorder, with severe amnesia and loss of recent and working memory.”
From Vitamins and Minerals for Energy, Fatigue and Cognition: A Narrative Review of the Biochemical and Clinical Evidence (2020) · cites this paper as [99]
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“In fact, current literature emphasizes that, when thiamine defciency is strongly suspected, treatment should be delayed pending laboratory results [16, 17].”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Whitfield, K. C., Bourassa, M. W., Adamolekun, B., Bergeron, G., Bettendorff, L., Brown, K. H., Cox, L., Fattal‐Valevski, A., Fischer, P. R., Frank, E. L., Hiffler, L., Hlaing, L. M., Jefferds, M. E., Kapner, H., Kounnavong, S., Mousavi, M. P. S., Roth, D. E., Tsaloglou, M., Wieringa, F., & Combs, G. F.
- Affiliations
- Mount Saint Vincent University (CA)
- New York Academy of Sciences (US)
- University of Tennessee Health Science Center (US)
- University of Liège (BE)
- Gates Foundation (US)
- MRC Elsie Widdowson Laboratory (GB)
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- Mayo Clinic (US)
- University of Utah (US)
- Médecins Sans Frontières (ES)
- Ministry of Health and Sports (MM)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US)
- Independent contractor New York New York
- Ministry of Health (LA)
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Diagnostics For All (US)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Tufts University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Combs, Gerald F.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-08-27
- Volume
- 1430
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-43
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- PMC
- PMC6392124
- OpenAlex
- W2889058844
- Cited by
- 336
- References
- 211
- Citations by year
- 2026: 44 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 17.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Medecins Sans Frontieres Field Research (Medecins Sans Frontieres) (submittedVersion)
- Open Repository and Bibliography (University of Liège) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Clinical Neurology › Alcoholism and Thiamine Deficiency
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Child Nutrition and Water Access
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Nutrition, Health, and Society Studies
- Keywords
- thiamine deficiency, beriberi, infantile beriberi, infant mortality, food fortification, thiamine supplementation, food balance sheets, grain milling, rice washing, micronutrient deficiency, prevalence, neurodevelopmental outcomes
- MeSH terms
- Food, Fortified, Humans, Public Health, Risk Factors, Thiamine Deficiency, Global Health, Prevalence, Dietary Supplements
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