Points from Letters: Lumbo-sacral Belts

Abstract

Correspondence by abnormal red cell haemolysis by hydrogen peroxide, deficiency of vitamin E is, in our experience, almost invariable in the malabsorption syndrome, and common after surgery for peptic ulcer. Of 80 patients with a Polya gastrectomy, 57 had evidence of vitamin-E deficiency, and the proportion of abnormal findings was the same whether the patients attended hospital because of complications of the operation or were attending a routine follow-up clinic. Abnormal results were significantly more common when the operation had been performed more than 10 years previously, but results were nevertheless abnormal in about half the patients within 10 years of operation. A group of patients with various other gastric operations within the previous 10 years showed a similar incidence of abnormal findings. In a small number of patients studied in greater detail, gross creatinuria was reduced after administration of vitamin E.We feel these studies suggest that deficiency of vitamin E may be not uncommon, although its importance in human nutrition still remains to be established.-We are, etc.,