Low B12, TPO antibodies but doctors insisting it's MS

[Mirandarr]

Hi all - new here

You guys know so much so I'm hoping for your take on what's going on with me. Any advice on what I should do going forward i.e. getting B12 injections from GP when I'm "in range".

Doctors found some demyelination on my brain MRI. Immediately the doctor said MS (probably). This was without any bloodwork and a cursory physical exam. Since then another docter has said MS again with NO bloodwork. Dismissed the B12 level.

I managed to get a GP to carry out tests for Hughes as my syptoms overlapped.

I paid for blood tests to get a better picture of my health and get to the bottom of the 'MS'. I'm getting parietal cell and intrinsic factor antibodies checked also.

My results:

Active B12 (holotranscobalamin) 148.000 pmol/L [37.50 - 188.00]

Folate 19.98 ug/L [3.89 - 26.80]

Ferritin 23.5 ug/L [13.00 - 150.00]

TSH 0.977 mIU/L [0.27 - 4.20]

Free T3 5.08 pmol/L [3.10 - 6.80]

Free thyroxine 17.000 pmol/L [12.00 - 22.00]

TPO antibodies 58.1 IU/mL [0.00 - 34.00 Elevated]

ThyroGlobulin antibodies 26.500 IU/mL [0.00 - 115.00]

Homocysteine 8umol/L [<10 optimal]

Mean cell haemoglobin level 26.1 pg [27.0 - 33.0] Outside reference range

Mean cell haemoglobin concentration 318 g/L [335.0 - 370.0] Outside reference range

Thank you for reading this. All help appreciated.

MM

[Gambit62 Administrator]

Mirandarr

Your B12 result is active B12 - active B12 is normally 20% of the total B12 in your blood which is the result given by serum B12. The level you report above is near the top of the range for active B12 implying that B12 absorption really isn't part of the problem.

Your folate level also looks near the top of the range.

Your blood tests do seem to show that your red blood cells are on the small side which would be consistent with iron deficient anaemia rather than B12 deficient anaemia.

Your homocysteine also seems to be in range which would imply that your cells have enough B12 to do everything they need, which would also rule out B12 being part of the problem.

It would be helpful to have normal ranges quoted on the tests for some of the above - including the antibody tests. Many antibody tests aren't that sensitive - meaning that they mistake other chemicals in your blood as antibodies so to rule out a false postive they can have quite significant ranges that don't count as showing genuine antibodies. Suspect that you probably got more help on that on TUK forum as TPO antibodies relate to hashimotos (auto-immune thyroidosis) rather than to PA

[Mirandarr in reply to Gambit62]

Thanks I'll update with ranges. Interesting what you say about TPO antibody tests...