Urinary Excretion of Thiamine as a Characteristic of the Individual. ∗

Abstract

Summary

1. The thiamine and pyramin excretions by 2 groups of normal young men maintained on 1 and 2 mg of thiamine per day have been determined on 2 different occasions when the same diet was served on 3 successive days. Each of these periods occurred only after the men had been stabilized at their respective intakes.

2. The thiamine excretion on a constant diet shows a 2 to 3 fold variation for the men within each group and an overlapping of the 2 groups. The pyramin excretion is much more constant and shows no tendency for the values of the 2 groups to overlap.

3. The excretion of thiamine is characteristic of the individual as shown by the rank correlations of the excretion values. This was true over the entire 8 months of the dietary regime and was also true when the above thiamine intakes were reversed. There is no such correlation for the pyramin excretions.

4. The explanation of the thiamine excresion as a characteristic of the individual cannot be found in the fecal excretion of thiamine, the physical activity of the subjects, in the B.M.R. nor in their body weights.