1. Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency in elderly patients
- Author
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Georges Kaltenbach, Emmanuel Andrès, Jean-Frédéric Blicklé, Maher Ben Abdelgheni, Frédéric Maloisel, A.E. Perrin, M. Noblet-Dick, Esther Noel, Jean-Louis Schlienger, and Noureddine Henoun Loukili
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Malabsorption ,Cobalamin transport ,Review ,Cobalamin ,Gastroenterology ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Internal medicine ,hemic and lymphatic diseases ,Epidemiology ,medicine ,polycyclic compounds ,Humans ,Elderly people ,heterocyclic compounds ,Letters ,Vitamin B12 ,Geriatric Assessment ,Aged ,pernicious anemia ,integumentary system ,business.industry ,Dietary intake ,nutritional and metabolic diseases ,Vitamin B 12 Deficiency ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Vitamin B 12 ,Endocrinology ,chemistry ,business - Abstract
VITAMIN B12 OR COBALAMIN DEFICIENCY occurs frequently (> 20%) among elderly people, but it is often unrecognized because the clinical manifestations are subtle; they are also potentially serious, particularly from a neuropsychiatric and hematological perspective. Causes of the deficiency include, most frequently, food-cobalamin malabsorption syndrome (> 60% of all cases), pernicious anemia (15%–20% of all cases), insufficent dietary intake and malabsorption. Food-cobalamin malabsorption, which has only recently been identified as a significant cause of cobalamin deficiency among elderly people, is characterized by the inability to release cobalamin from food or a deficiency of intestinal cobalamin transport proteins or both. We review the epidemiology and causes of cobalamin deficiency in elderly people, with an emphasis on food-cobalamin malabsorption syndrome. We also review diagnostic and management strategies for cobalamin deficiency.
- Published
- 2004