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...

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.

A comparative study was done to determine the profile of vitamin B12 and folate status in Malaysians during two different periods. For the period of 1987/88, we analysed a total of 9,162 cases (inpatients) referred for vitamin B12 estimation and 10,290 cases for folate estimation. We found that 2.6% were vitamin B12 deficient and 31.2% were folate deficient. For the period of 1992/93, of the 9,...

The archetypes The era of modern antibody therapy begins with Rodney Porter’s Nobel Prize-winning report on the basic structure of the immunoglobulin molecule. Using papain for digestion of a 7s rabbit antibody preparation, he obtained two almost identical antigen-binding fragments (Fab) that blocked antigen precipitation by the parent antibody while a third, easily crystallizable fragment (Fc)...

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.