Results from private blood tests

[Cali25]

Hi everyone, I went to St Thomas' hospital for an active B12,MMA, Folate and Homocysteine tests to try and get an definitive answer, these are the results.

Lab comments

Homocysteine 17.5 umol/I. ( 0.0 - 15.00 ) Slightly above upper limit

Serum Folate. 5.4 ug/L. (3.1 - 20.5 ) Within ref range (lower end)

Vitamin B12 (serum) . 189.0 ng/L. (187.0 - 883.0) Lower end of our ref range

Methylmalonic acid. 314 nmol/L. (0 - 360) Within our age related ref range

Active B12 (HoloTC). 50 pmol/L. (70 - 108). Within indeterminate range

(25 - 70)

"The results suggest that the concentrations of folate and vitamin B12 in blood are declining but still sufficient to support intracellular vitamin B12 metabolism. Monitoring of levels may be required."

I noted serum B12 at 189 ug/ L is much lower than the last test done by GP which was 304 ug/L Also folate down from 7ug/L to 5.4ug/L

I don't think the GP will do anything for me based on these results still looks to be a grey area, still have symptoms. Where do I go from here? Surely it is better to treat now rather than wait. Thanks in advance.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

Suggest you try writing to your GP sharing the results but also pointing out that this is only part of the evaluation and symptoms are also important and list the symptoms that you have that point to B12/folate deficiency. The report says that the results suggest sufficient B12 and folate not that they guarantee the situation either way.

BCSH guidelines and UKNEQAS alert may be useful documents to refer to.

If your levels are dropping then you probably need to look at why they are dropping - you could ask for IFA test but also think more broadly about what may be causing an absorption problem - particularly if you also have problems with iron. Coeliacs, crohns and low stomach acidity and a review of drug interactions would be useful. The symptoms of low stomach acidity overlap considerably with those of raised stomach acidity.

[GetTheJDIn in reply to Gambit62]

How are you getting on and what if any medication did you get? my results are very similar from st thomas's

[ITYFIALMCTT in reply to GetTheJDIn]

GetTheJDIn , you replied to Gambit62 so Cali25 won't necessarily see your enquiry (tho' I've just live tagged her to this).

You can look at Cali's more recent posts via her profile which might give you some insight into what is happening for her: healthunlocked.com/user/cali25