Tropical ulcers often developed in swollen legs, and continued to weep as long as the edema existed. If the edema had been caused by salt intake, it could be, controlled by eliminating salt, but for the most part salt was not a factor, because we rarely had any salt in our diet.
Patients with dry beriberi were usually very thin. Their chief
complaint was lightning-like pains (neuralgia) in their legs and feet.
The only relief came from soaking their legs in buckets of cold water.
Many sat up all night trying to obtain some comfort.
On a rare occasion a dry beriberi patient would develop edema in his feet and legs; strange as it may seem, the edema seemed to relieve the pains of the dry beriberi.
Forty years later, some of the survivors still have leg pains in spite of heavy vitamin therapy indicating permanent nerve damage.
Beriberi Heart Disease: Beriberi heart disease was seen frequently, and often resulted in sudden death. Like the legs and abdomen, the heart became enlarged with edema; the beat became irregular. As some patients lay down, their heart would stop beating, especially if lying on the left side.
If you could get to them in time to sit them up, or to massage their heart, it was sometimes possible to get the heart started again.
Sudden death at night was a rather frequent occurrence. Many American trained cardiologists still consider beriberi heart disease as a reversible condition, but some ex-P.O.W.s still have the same irregularities.
Pellagra: Pellagra was common, manifest by conjunctivitis, glossitis, amblyopia, angular stomatitis, geographic tongues (often with deep grooves and severe sensitivity), and scrotal dermatitis of varying degrees including sloughing. There was increased pigmentation of the skin sometimes patchy.
Xerophthalmia: Xerophthalmia and optic atrophy were seen occasionally and often left permanent damage to vision, and sometimes complete blindness.
Diphtheria: We had an epidemic of diphtheria some two hundred cases of which 125 died before the Japs obtained a limited amount of antitoxin. Most survivors had permanent residuals.