Help - Medichecks and GP B12 results

[Tibbytoots]

Hi I got a Medichecks test done because I didn’t know my GP was ordering my Vit D and B12 tested.

Both bloods were drawn - fasting - within 2 hours of each other.

Medichecks B12 - 138pmol/L - which I understand converts to 186.99 NG90/L

GP blood. B12 - 857 ng/L range given (197 -771 ng/L

Medichecks makes me think low in serum B12 but GP blood looks to be top of range.

What do you think? Thanks.

[greygoose]

Yes, but wasn't the Medicheck's an active B12 test? Your doctor wouldn't do an active B12 on the NHS. So, they're completely different ranges.

[Tibbytoots in reply to greygoose]

Yes thank you.

[greygoose in reply to Tibbytoots]

You're welcome.

[humanbean]

Is your Medichecks result an Active B12 or serum (non-active) B12 result? If you can't tell then telling us the reference range will help, because the top of the range is wildly different for active B12 and non-active B12.

The NHS never tests Active B12 so you can be sure that it is a non-active B12 test.

Edit : I see that greygoose beat me to it.

[Tibbytoots in reply to humanbean]

Thank you - got it now thanks to Seaside Susie.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Tibbytoots

Medichecks does the Active B12 test, this is stated on their results sheet, and their range is something like 37.5-188. No need to convert the unit of measurement to anything else, you're not comparing it with anything else. Your result for Active B12 is 138pmol/L (37.5-188) and that is a good result.

NHS does Total B12 which measures the total amount of B12 in our bodies - both bound and unbound (active). It doesn't separate the bound and unbound so we can't tell from a Total B12 test how much Active B12 we have. It's Active B12 that is the better test.

Your Total B12 is 857 ng/L (197 -771 ng/L) which is good. Don't worry about it being over range. According to an extract from the book, "Could it be B12?" by Sally M. Pacholok:

"We believe that the 'normal' serum B12 threshold needs to be raised from 200 pg/ml to at least 450 pg/ml because deficiencies begin to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid below 550".

"For brain and nervous system health and prevention of disease in older adults, serum B12 levels should be maintained near or above 1000 pg/ml."

Note that pg/ml is the same as ng/L.

[Tibbytoots]

Thank you so much for explaining this to me. I appreciate it - I didn’t understand.

[Angel_of_the_North]

Theye are testing two different things. Medichecks is active B12 (look at the range) and GP is serum B12