Hematological Findings in Children with Serum Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Abstract

Aim: Vitamin B12 is essential for DNA synthesis and hematopoiesis, and its severe deficiency not only causes anemia, but may also result in thrombocytopenia and leucopenia. In this study, we analysed the relationship between hematological status and vitamin B12 deficiency and draw attention to this issue. Material and Method: The data gathered from our institute Gaziantep University Hospital outpatient clinics electronic database. Six hundred forty children were evaluated. The inclusion criteria were child patients with less than 200 ng/l vitamin B12 levels. Results: Four hundred seventy-seven patients (74.5%) had no hematological abnormalities. Anemia was detected in 99 patients (15.5 %), two patients (0.3%) had a Hb-level lt; 7 g/dl, anemia without macrocytosis in 91 (14.2 %), anemia with macrocytosis in 8 (1.3 %), leucopenia in 8 (1.3 %), neutropenia in 22 (3.4 %), lymphopenia in 9 (1.4 %), thrombocytopenia in 6 (0.9 %), and pancytopenia in 3 patients (0.4 %). An examination of the correlation, there were no correlations between vitamin B12 levels and hematological parameters. Conclusion: Our results showed that hematological abnormalities were detected in only 25.5% of patients with Vitamin B12 deficiency, and anemia and neutropenia were the most common hematological abnormalities. In addition, serum vitamin B12 levels were not significantly correlated with the complete blood count parameters.

Keywords

• vitamin b12,
• anemia,
• neutropenia
• anemi
• vitamin b12
• nötropeni