科研之友
微信
新浪微博
Facebook
分享链接
摘要
Objective: To estimate the frequency of undiagnosed vitamin B-12 deficiency among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who had not taken metformin during at least the prior 5 years and to ascertain whether vitamin B-12 deficiency among the patients with type 2 diabetes was due to nutritional deficiency or malabsorption. Methods: Serum vitamin B-12 levels were measured in 44 subjects with diabetes and a mean age of 51 years (range, 40 to 70), 21 (48%) of whom had low levels (<200 pg/mL). Of those 21 patients, 10 agreed to enroll in an intervention phase consisting of oral supplementation with mecobalamin, 1,500 mu g daily for 3 months. Those patients in whom vitamin B-12 levels failed to normalize after oral supplementation alone would be presumed to have vitamin B-12 deficiency attributable to malabsorption. Results: Almost half of the subjects with type 2 diabetes not taking metformin had biochemically proven vitamin B-12 deficiency. All 10 subjects who enrolled in the intervention phase had normalization of their vitamin B-12 levels after 3 months of oral supplementation with mecobalamin. Conclusion: We conclude that vitamin B-12 deficiency is common among patients with type 2 diabetes and was related to nutrition in our study group. In addition to intensive glycemic control, vitamin B-12 supplementation should be considered for treatment of diabetic neuropathy. In almost 50% of patients with low vitamin B-12 levels, the deficiency was corrected with oral supplementation only. This, indeed, is an important finding, inasmuch as oral vitamin B-12 supplementation is easy, convenient, and readily accepted by patients. This finding highlights the need for aggressive and early diagnosis and treatment to avoid complications of vitamin B-12 deficiency. (Endocr Pract. 2010;16:205-208)
- 出版日期2010-4
