During 2001, neurologic impairment resulting from cobalamin (vitamin B12) deficiency was diagnosed in two children in Georgia. The children were breastfed by mothers who followed vegetarian diets. This report summarizes the two cases and provides guidance for health-care providers on identifying and preventing cobalamin deficiency among breastfed infants of vegetarian mothers.

B12 Deficiency, Zouë Lloyd-Wright, 1 Anne-Mette Hvas, Jan Møller, Tom A.B. Sanders, and Ebba Nexø ( Nutrition Food & Health Research Centre, King’s College London, Franklin-Wilkins Bldg., 150 Stamford St., Waterloo, London SE1 9NN, United Kingdom; 2 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, AKH, Aarhus University Hospital, DK8000 Aarhus C, Denmark; 3 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, SKS, Aarhus ...

Vitamin B12 Deficiency, Ebba Nexo, 1* Anna-Lisa Christensen, Anne-Mette Hvas, Torben E. Petersen, and Sergey N. Fedosov ( Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Aarhus University Hospital, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark; 2 The Laboratory for Protein Chemistry, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark; * address correspondence to this author at: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, AKH, Aarhus U...

Participants from DPP/DPPOS were assigned to placebo (n=1082) or metformin (n=1073) for 3.2 years, followed by metformin in the metformin group for 9 years. Metformin use was associated with increased risk of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Two elderly patients with vitamin B12 deficiency were found to have low immunoglobulin levels. These returned to normal on treatment with vitamin B12.

We confirm a decrease in cobalamins during pregnancy, and report that the active part of cobalamins (holotranscobalamin, holoTC) remains unchanged. The decrease in cobalamins is explained by a decreased holohaptocorrin (holoHC), suggesting that holoTC rather than cobalamins should be used as a marker of vitamin B12 deficiency during pregnancy.