1 Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 1919 La Branch, Houston, TX 77002
To the Editor.
I read with great interest the commentary by J. A. Lemons and M. J. Maisels on vitamin E.1 The timing for such a critical review of the subject could not be more appropriate because vitamin E is now being prescribed widely and in large doses to very low birth weight infants. I have two basic comments to the report by Lemons and Maisels.
First, the authors reported their experience with the oral administration of vitamin E and pointed out that serum levels are frequently elevated following the oral administration of 100 mg/kg of vitamin E. Thirty-eight percent of their patients had serum levels greater than 3.5 mg/dL, whereas 13% exceeded 5.5 mg/dL.