As heart failure is a consistent feature of ‘wet’ beriberi, recently described circulating markers of cardiac dysfunction, such as brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (ntBNP) and troponin T [33], are likely to be elevated in infantile beriberi and could, in the absence of confounding diseases, suggest a diagnosis of beriberi. Here, NPPB is linked to beriberi.