My gp and private haematologist

[toph]

I have private health insurance and my private haematologist did a number of tests. I requested a B12 active test but he tested my B12 serum level my intrinsic factor antibodies and my parietal selves. This is not what I wanted as what is happening is my results came back at 1200 for my B12 level but I have heard and been told by professional Laboratories both in Manchester and London that up to 80% of this serum B12 level is not active in your body. Can anyone shed some light on this is 20% which is a maximum level of B12 comes out at 240 which I believe is far below the minimum level for B12 used by the NHS so now I am struggling to get a decent diagnosis. Has anybody got anything to say on this as I am really confused

[fbirder]

B12 in your blood binds to one of two transporter proteins - transcobalamin (TC) or haptocorrin (HC). About 80% is HC-B12 and 20% TC-B12. Only TC-B12 (aka holotranscobalamin or 'active' B12) can enter the cells.

But, not surprisingly, doctors take that into account. Which is why the bottom of the range for 'active' B12 is about five times lower than that for serum B12.

So your serum B12 of 1200 is high. And the chances are very good that, if you had it measured, your ' active ' B12 would be around 240 which would also be high.

It's like counting sheep. You can count heads or you can count feet. if you count 300 heads and I count 1200 feet them we've got the same number of sheep.