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American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 77, No. 6, 1474-1477, June 2003
© 2003 American Society for Clinical Nutrition

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION

Low vitamin B-12 concentrations in patients without anemia: the effect of folic acid fortification of grain1,2,3

James L Mills, Isabelle Von Kohorn, Mary R Conley, Jack A Zeller, Christopher Cox, Robert E Williamson and D Robert Dufour

1 From the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (JLM, MRC, and CC); the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia (IVK); and the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (JAZ and DRD) and the Information Resource Management Service (REW), Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington, DC.

Background: In some patients with vitamin B-12 deficiency mistakenly treated with folic acid, anemia resolved but neurologic complications became worse (masking). Fortification of enriched cereal grains with folic acid has raised concerns that people who consume large quantities of cereal grains, particularly the elderly, may be at increased risk of masking. It is unclear, however, what proportion of people with low vitamin B-12 concentrations do not have anemia and whether the proportion is increasing.

Objective: We investigated whether fortification has increased the proportion of patients with low vitamin B-12 but without anemia.

Design: We reviewed the laboratory results of every patient for whom a vitamin B-12 concentration was measured at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC, between 1992 and 2000. Those with a low vitamin B-12 concentration (< 258 pmol/L) had their hematocrits and mean cell volumes checked. The proportion without anemia was examined by year before, during, and after folic acid fortification began.

Results: There were 1573 subjects with a low vitamin B-12 concentration. The proportion without anemia did not increase significantly from the prefortification period (39.2%) to the period of optional fortification (45.5%) and the postfortification period (37.6%). These findings did not change when the analysis was limited to patients aged > 60 y or when a more conservative definition of low vitamin B-12 (< 150 pmol/L) was used.

Conclusions: Despite evidence that folic acid exposure has increased dramatically since food fortification began, this population showed no evidence of an increase in low vitamin B-12 concentrations without anemia. If confirmed, these results would indicate that food fortification has not caused a major increase in masking of vitamin B-12 deficiency.

Key Words: WORDSPernicious anemia • vitamin B-12 • cobalamin • folate • folic acid • vitamin B-12 deficiency • masking of pernicious anemia




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