A cross-sectional study was conducted in 30 HF patients scheduled for regular follow-up visits in the Mayo Heart Failure Clinic. Whole-blood thiamine diphosphate was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography. Additional clinical and demographic features were collected through review of electronic medical records.
The estimated prevalence of thiamine deficiency in stable HF patients was calculated to be <11.6%. There was no correlation between diuretic dose and thiamine levels (r = 0.02, P = 0.93) and there was no correlation found between left-ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and thiamine levels (r = 0.147, p = 0.44).
Our findings suggest that the prevalence of thiamine deficiency, based on standard normal values, in a stable outpatient HF cohort on standard loop diuretic therapy is very low. Previous work has demonstrated improvements in myocardial function with high-dose thiamine supplementation regardless of thiamine blood levels, however, suggesting that thiamine may become conditionally essential with HF. Therefore, we suggest that a disease-specific reference range be determined to accurately identify HF patients that would benefit from thiamine supplementation.