Serum Vitamin B 12 Levels in the Aged

Abstract

In an attempt to elucidate age-related variations in the normal blood content of cobalamin and the frequency of antimegaloblastic nutriment deficiency in the elderly, 273 geriatric patients were investigated. Low serum vitamin B12 values were found in 1/3 of these patients, due to latent pernicious anemia in 5 and malabsorption in 7 cases, and probably caused by nutritional deficiency of folate or cobalamin in 78 cases. The patients with apparently normal vitamin B12 levels had a mean value (379 .+-. 14 pg/ml) which was lower than the mean (465 .+-. 20 pg/ml) for a younger control group, but nutritional deficiencies could not be ruled out in this part of the series. Serum vitamin B12 assays should be performed rather liberally in the aged. Patients with nutritional deficiency of cobalamin or folate should be treated, even if frank megaloblastic anemia is not present.