New to P A S.

[reelingenious]

I have been chasing symptoms for several years. Mostly weakness, fatigue, brain fog, dizziness and vision changes. After having many, many, bloods ordered by my GP nothing showed up as abnormal. I have been reading up about B12 deficiency, and although a normal blood test for B12 showed nothing, I had a Medichecks B12 + blood test, which shows "active", presumably "available", B12.

The active B12 was 165pmol/L, which is within range. BUT RDW, was 15.5% which was shown as elevated. This RDW seems to indicate a B12 deficiency, so I am confused!!

All other levels within this blood test showed as "normal".

Question; Does "active" necessarily mean useable?

Should I test for MMA, which South Tees NHS Trust, suggest is a better diagnostic tool?

[buster_uk]

Hi. I'm new to this myself so am not sure what to suggest. I just wanted to say there are many many people on here who can point you in the right direction.

[fbirder]

165 pmol/L is way above the bottom of the range for active B12. Indeed, I believe that might be the upper range for their Active B12 test, meaning your true levels are even higher.

It is possible to have a functional B12 deficiency, where there is a lot of B12 in the blood (as you have) but not enough gets into the cells. An MMA test would show if this were the case. However, it's not at all common.

A high RDW is normally associated with iron deficiency anaemia. Either alone, or with macrocytic anaemia caused by a B12 deficiency. WHat was the MCV result and what are your iron and ferritin like?

[reelingenious in reply to fbirder]

Thanks for swift reply.

Upper limit of Active B12 for this lab is 188. MC V was 90, range 81 to 98.

Ferritin 196 ug/L range 30 to 400. Serum folate was 13.38, range 3.89 - 19.45.

Allan

[fbirder in reply to reelingenious]

It looks like just an MMA test might give more light. But, personally, I wouldn't expect it to be anything but normal.