Pernicious anaemia or not

[Sandra_Holmes_R]

Hi i have been on b12 injections for years..i deff need them or my b12 drops below 100

I was tested for IF which came back negative. However pareital cell antibodies came back positive. ..is this a reliable result for PA.??

I also recently had a gastroscopy /endoscopy and results all came back normal.

Feel like im getting nowhere getting a straight answer from my dr. Any help would be appreciated.

[clivealive Forum Support]

Hi Sandra_Holmes_R a much wiser person than I has commented previously:

Treatment for PA and non-dietary vitamin B12 deficiency is virtually the same.

The symptoms of PA are the symptoms of the B12 deficiency that it causes. If the cause isn't dietary then it is an absorption problem so you need to find another way of replenishing B12 initially. Most absorption problems aren't treatable but a few are - notably h pylori infection - which would mean that once that has been dealt with you would be able to absorb B12 from your diet so wouldn't need maintenance shots for life.

The Intrinsic Factor Antibodies (IFA) test is unreliable in that it gives false negatives in people with PA half the time. So a negative result doesn't mean that you don't have PA. However, a positive result is a sure-fire, 95% certain indicator of PA.

I am not a medically trained person but I've had Pernicious Anaemia (one of many causes of B12 deficiency) for more than 47 years.

I wish you well.

[GastritisB12]

Its hard to say, really if your B12 is dropping because of low stomach acid because your parietal cells have been damaged sufficiently, then I would have thought they should see this during the endoscopy or in the lab results from biopsies.

However, I can tell you in my case, one gastroenterologist also found nothing except very mild gastritis, however at another endoscopy a much older professor of gastroenterology found intestinal metaplasia of some part of the stomach.

I guess it depends where they take biopsies from. I noticed in my case the gastroenterologist who found nothing did not take many biopsies and possibly from the 'wrong' part of the stomach.

So now I'm not sure which doctors to believe. Looks like even when it comes to specialists its pot luck how good a doctor you get.