Scurvy Seen in Japan

Here, we describe a case of scurvy seen in Japan. An unmarried man in his 50s who had an unbalanced diet (including brown rice) and a drinking habit visited our hospital with a chief complaint of bilateral leg pain. Physical examination revealed the pain to be caused by purpura and intraarticular bleeding of the knee. There were no abnormalities in his blood platelet count or coagulation function. His blood vitamin C level had significantly decreased to ≤0.2 mg/L. Intravenous infusion of vitamin C resulted in improvement of his symptom.