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Vitamin Studies in Middle-Aged and Old Individuals

II. Correlation between Vitamin A Plasma Content and Certain Clinical and Laroratory Findings¹

Five Figures

Division of Gerontology, Washington University School of Medicine and the St. Louis City Infirmary Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri

A clinical study of 106 individuals with regard to signs of vitamin A deficiency revealed a considerably higher frequency of occurrence of hyperkeratosis of the skin follicles and of localized conjunctival thickening in the subjects with a low vitamin A plasma level (1–15 µg%) than in those having a higher plasma vitamin concentration (25–60 µg%). The occurrence of dryness of the skin and of blepharocon-junctivitis was also more frequent in the subjects with hypovitaminemia A, but the difference between the groups was not marked.

No correlation was found between dark adaptation time and vitamin A plasma values but a significant, though moderate, correlation was observed between length of adaptation time and age.

The percentage of keratinized cells in conjunctival smears was slightly higher in indviduals with low vitamin A plasma values, but the percentage variation between different subjects and between the two eyes of the same subjects was so great as to tend to invalidate the clinical usefulness of this examination.

No correlation was observed between the vitamin A plasma concentration and the number of epithelial cells excreted daily in the urine, nor between the plasma value and the percentage of keratinized cells in the urinary sediment.

Manuscript received 26 August 1948.

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