For citation purposes: van der Werff ASA, Klooster A. Relationship of alcohol intake and thiamine deficiency in heart failure. OA Alcohol 2013 Mar 01;1(1):4.

Critical review

 
Biomedical

Relationship of alcohol intake and thiamine deficiency in heart failure

ASA van der Werff, A Klooster
 

Authors affiliations

(1) Department of Cardiology, Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.

(2) Department of Pathology and Medical Biology, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.

* Corresponding author Email: a.klooster@umcg.nl

Abstract

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the relationship of alcohol intake with thiamine deficiency and with heart failure and the manner in which they interact with each other.

Discussion

Moderate alcohol consumption has shown to decrease cardiovascular mortality. However, heavy alcohol consumption is associated with alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Excessive alcohol intake is associated with thiamine deficiency. Moreover, heart failure is also related to thiamine deficiency, and thiamine supplementation has shown to increase left ventricular ejection fraction.

Conclusion

Thiamine deficiency should be further studied in heart failure, and more research is needed to show the effect of thiamine supplementation in heart failure.

Licensee OA Publishing London 2013. Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY)
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Keywords
  • Alcohol intake
  • Thiamine deficiency
  • Heart failure
  • Alcoholic cardiomyopathy