The clinical picture is the most important factor in assessing the significance of test results assessing cobalamin status because there is no 'gold standard' test to define deficiency. Serum cobalamin currently remains the first-line test, with additional second-line plasma methylmalonic acid to help clarify uncertainties of underlying biochemical/functional deficiencies. Serum holotranscobala...

BACKGROUND Cobalamin/folate deficiency in elderly subjects may lead to psychiatric symptoms, but more often it increases the severity of various organic and nonorganic mental diseases. A major clinical problem, however, is the uncertainty and controversy concerning biochemical markers of cobalamin/folate deficiency to be used in the diagnostic evaluation of suspected cobalamin/folate deficiency...

OBJECTIVE It has been hypothesized that adequate concentrations of vitamin B(12) and folate are essential to maintain the integrity of the neurological systems involved in mood regulation, but epidemiologic evidence for such a link in the general population is unavailable. This study examined whether community-dwelling older women with metabolically significant vitamin B(12) or folate deficienc...

BACKGROUND Vitamin deficiencies are often part of malnutrition, which predisposes to acute lower respiratory tract infections. OBJECTIVE The objective was to measure the association between cobalamin and folate status and subsequent respiratory morbidity. DESIGN A prospective cohort study was conducted in 2482 children aged 6-30 mo nested in a zinc supplementation trial. We measured plasma ...

Serum cobalamin concentrations are frequently low in the elderly but the cause is often not apparent. Because oral contraceptives have been associated with low cobalamin concentrations in young women, we compared hormone use with cobalamin status in elderly women to determine whether it could account for their unexplained low cobalamin concentrations. Thirty-eight of the 111 women had abnormal ...

Vitamin deficiencies are known to be common among infants residing in low- and middle-income countries but relatively few studies have assessed several biochemical parameters simultaneously. The objective of the study was to describe the status of vitamins (A, D, E, B₆, B12 and folate) in breastfed infants. We measured the plasma concentrations of trans retinol, 25 hydroxy vitamin D, α-tocopher...

To the Editor-The recent paper by Krasinski et al.' describing the utility of serum pepsinogen I and pepsinogen I1 levels to identify fundic atrophic gastritis in the elderly includes some interesting findings. I believe their conclusion relating atrophic gastritis to vitamin BI2 deficiency requires clarification. The data clearly show an increase in the prevalence of low serum vitamin BI2 leve...