STUDIES ON SHOCK INDUCED BY HEMORRHAGE’ II. EFFECT OF THIAMIN ON DISTURBANCES OF CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM

In the preceding paper (1) we have presented evidence which indicates that administration of thiamin to etherized dogs in which shock was induced by repeated hemorrhages results in a marked prolongation of survival time. Lohmann and Schuster (2) have shown thiamin, as a coenzyme, to be essential in the metabolism of pyruvic acid. Platt and Lu (3) have shown that the increase of blood pyruvate values may be correlated with the degree of vi-tamin B, deficiency in cases of beri-beri, and that the blood pyruvate de-termination may be used as a diagnostic test in this disease. Evidence that diphosphothiamin may catalyze the decarboxylation of other keto acids than pyruvic, such as a ketobutyric and a ketovaleric, has been obtained by Long and Peters (4) in their work on pyruvate oxidation in brain tissue. On the basis of the above work, it was decided to determine blood keto acids, blood sugars, and blood lactic acids in animals in a state of shock due to hemorrhage, before and after treatment with thiamin, in order to de-termine whether or not any correlation might be found between blood level