Abstract
Although vitamin E deficiency in ruminants results in conspicuous heart disease, a similar deficiency state in primates appears to spare the heart, even when other systems are affected. No heart disease in man has been related to a vitamin E deficiency. The pharmacologic use of vitamin E in doses 10 to 50 times the daily requirement was recommended in 1947 for the treatment of a variety of cardiovascular disorders, including intermittent claudication, angina pectoris, coronary occlusion, congestive heart failure, thrombophlebitis and thromboembolism, but no evidence of its effectiveness has been convincingly verified during the ensuing 25 years.