Skin Temperatures of the Extremities of Persons with Induced Deficiencies of Thiamine, Riboflavin, and Other Components of the B Complex.

Disturbances of vasomotor responses of the feet have been reported by Wenckebach (1), Weiss and Wilkins (2), and Wilkins and Kolb (3) among patients suffering with peripheral neuritis, associated with vitamin deficiency. The latter investigators stated that the disturbance was characterized by a decrease of the vasomotor tonus of the feet, resembling that found after resection of the first and second lumbar sympathetic ganglia. The vasoconstrictor response, as recorded by the plethysmograph, to brief vasoconstrictor stimuli was slight in the toes as compared with the fingers. Also, measurements of skin temperature showed that the toes were constantly warmer than the fingers; this was even more pronounced when the patients were subjected to a cool environment. After the body had been warmed, the skin temperature of the toes rose slightly or remained unchanged while the skin temperature of the fingers rose to or above that of the toes. Since clinical and chemical studies of induced deficiency of thiamine, riboflavin, and other components of the B complex in human subjects were being carried out by Wilder, Mason, Cusick, Power and one of us (Williams) (4 to 6), the present studies were made in conjunction with these controlled studies to determine the amount of vasomotor disturbance in the extremities by means of measurements of skin temperature. Measurements of the loss of vasomotor tonus were made and correlated with the clinical signs and symptoms of deficiency disease, the apparent degree of depletion of the tissue stores of vitamins, and the severity of the metabolic defect.