Convulsive seizures in infants with pyridoxine-deficient diet.

pyridoxine-deficiency convulsions in humans was by Synderman i in 1950. He showed that apathy, failure to gain weight, anemia, and convulsions occurred on a pyridoxine-deficient diet and that admin¬ istration of pyridoxine corrected the condition. The 1951 edition of New and Nonofficial Reme¬ dies mentioned for the first time that infant convulsions might be caused by pyridoxine deficiency.5 Finally, the A. M. A. Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry reported in The Journal for Sept. 22, 1951,6 the whole subject in detail and warned that convulsions in infancy could be produced by pyridoxine deficiency. Thus the mystery of this peculiar convulsive disorder of young infants occurring during 1952 has been solved. It is our purpose in presenting these clinical case reports to acquaint physicians of the solution of this problem so that they may reopen cases in which a diagnosis of seizures of unknown etiology was made and determine if they were due to accidental pyridoxine deficiency. The pleasure and relief afforded the parents of our six cases through a simple explanation for what appeared to be an ominous condition was very gratifying. The situation we have described is just another in¬ stance of the dangers involved in attempting to copy human milk by blind reliance on laboratory analysis. There probably are several properties of human milk we have not yet learned to discern by laboratory meth¬ ods. Human milk, it may be noted, has a high level of pyridoxine. 416 N. Bedford Dr., Beverly Hills, Calif. (Dr. Molony).