Evaluation of serum vitamin B12 levels and its correlation with clinical presentation in patients with trigeminal neuralgia

Abstract

Background: The objective of this study was to estimate serum vitamin B12 levels and its correlation with severity of clinical presentation in patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Methods: A total of 80 participants were included and rendered into study group: 40 TN patients and control group: 40 healthy individuals. The serum vitamin B12 estimation of each participant was carried out by using serum vitamin B12 ELISA kit and pain characteristics of TN patients were recorded in details. Results: The mean serum vitamin B12 level was noticed to be significantly lower (p = 0.042) in study group (296.87 ± 248.75 pg/mol) as compared to control group (423.5 ± 296.41 pg/mol). There was a statistically significant difference in serum vitamin B12 level between vegetarian TN patients and those who were on mixed diet (p = 0.001). The pain associated with TN predominantly reported unilaterally involving the right side (55%), female gender (55%) and mandibular division (50%). Although pain intensity showed no significant relation (p = 0.024), duration of pain reported a strong negative association with mean serum vitamin B12 levels in TN patients (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Vitamin B12 supplements can be added to the established treatment protocol for the holistic management of TN patients particularly those who are on vegetarian diet.

Keywords

• Trigeminal neuralgia
• Vitamin b12 deficiency
• Visual analogue scale
• Vegetarian diet
• Mixed diet