Background. Pancytopenia has multiple etiologies like megaloblastic anemia, aplastic anemia, leukemia, and various infections. We investigated the clinical, etiological and hematological profile including bone marrow morphology of patients with pancytopenia in relation to their vitamin B12 and folic acid status at a tertiary care referral hospital in north India. Methods. A total of 140 consecu...

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 ...

Biermer’s disease also called: Addison’s anemia or in old textbooks, pernicious anemia, is an autoimmune disease, caused by impaired absorption of cobalamin (vitamin B12) owing to the neutralization of intrinsic factor action in the setting of immune atrophic gastritis [1]. In adults and elderly patients, this form of megaloblastic anemia is one of the leading causes of cobalamin deficiency, wi...

vitamin b12 (cobalamin) is an essential coenzyme for nucleic acid synthesis. animal protein is the major dietary source of vitamin b12. deficiency of vitamin b12 leads to megaloblastic anemia, degeneration of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and abnormalities of epithelial tissues. two factors are necessary for the cure of megaloblastic anemia: one in food (extrinsic factor) and one i...

Orthostatic hypotension in patients with cobalamin (Cbl) deficiency has been reported previously in isolated cases but we are not aware of detailed systematic studies of hemodynamic and autonomic nervous system function in patients with cobalamin deficiency. We investigated hemodynamic and autonomic responses to 60 degrees passive head up tilt (HUT) in 21 patients with vitamin B12 deficiency, 2...

Aim: In this study, we evaluated the clinical and laboratory data of healthy children with vitamin B12 deficiency. The benefits methylmalonic acid (MMA) homocysteine levels difficulties encountered in diagnosing deficiency were pointed out. 
 Materials Methods: A total 70 whose serum cobalamin below 126.5 pg/ml included study. age, gender, B12, urine MMA, plasma homocysteine, white blood c...

Methylmalonic acid (MMA) accumulates in the body in cases of cobalamin (vitamin B12) deficiency because of impaired metabolization of methylmalonyl CoA to succinyl CoA by methylmalonyl CoA-mutase, a cobalamin-dependent enzyme. Therefore, MMA represents a functional marker of cobalamin deficiency (1). It is widely accepted that MMA measurement is useful and necessary if serum cobalamin concentra...

Dietary deficiency of cobalamin resulting in tissue deficiency in white individuals is unusual. However, several patients with dietary deficiency who were neither vegan nor Hindu have been described. This report describes the case of a 14 year old boy who was a white non-Hindu with a very low intake of cobalamin, which was not apparent until a detailed dietary assessment was performed. The pati...

Serum cobalamin and homocysteine levels were studied in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and in stem cell donors treated with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). Cytoreductive treatment in patients with CML resulted in a decrease of cobalamin and homocysteine levels. In stem cell donors cobalamin and homocysteine levels increased after G-CSF administration. The increa...