Screening of the vitamin B12 status in an urban population sample from Romania: a pilot study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the vitamin B₁₂ status in a non-vegetarian sample of the adult urban population from Romania. The studied sample included 80 non vegetarian subjects aged between 19 and 74.6 years who did not use vitamin B₁₂ supplements or vitamin B₁₂ fortified food. The serum vitamin B₁₂ assay was performed using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay on a Roche Elecsys 2010 analyzer. Among all subjects, 93.75% (95% CI 86.2-97.3%) had serum vitamin B₁₂ concentrations in the reference range of the employed method (191-663 pg/ml). In these subjects, we found no statistically significant correlations between serum vitamin B₁₂ concentration and age or between serum vitamin B₁₂ concentration and hemoglobin level. The serum vitamin B₁₂ levels did not differ significantly (p>0.05-Student’s t-test) between women and men. Subnormal serum levels of vitamin B₁₂ were observed in 5% (95%CI 1.96-12.16%) of the investigated subjects, associated with irritable bowel syndrome and with long-term therapy with proton pomp inhibitors or birth control pills. In the present study, we have identified a large number of subjects with marginal depletion of vitamin B₁₂ in the population aged below 50 years. These results suggest the need of a screening for vitamin B₁₂ status in people from all age groups, the importance of the identification of responsible causes for the high prevalence of vitamin B₁₂ marginal status, as well as the fact that monitoring the vitamin B₁₂ status is especially important in subjects undergoing long-term treatment with certain drugs