Megaloblastic Anemia

Abstract

MEGALOBLASTIC anemia is the hematologic result of any of a variety of etiologic factors causing improper nucleoprotein synthesis.¹ Of these factors by far the most common are deficiencies of vitamin B₁₂ or folate or both. Such deficiencies account for at least 95 per cent of all patients with megaloblastic anemia. The remainder — less than 5 per cent — probably include a number who have inadequate utilization of vitamin B₁₂ or of folic acid, or both, as seemed to be true, at least in part, in a patient with liver disease who had a slight hematologic response to . . .