Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2010) 22 P297

ECE2010 Poster Presentations Diabetes (103 abstracts)

Evaluation of effect of dose and duration of treatment with metformin on serum vitamin B12 levels in type 2 diabetic patients

K P Harsha 1 , G Niveditha 2 , Reddy Sanjay 2 , K M Prasanna Kumar 2 & M C Shivamurthy 2


1S S Institute of medical Sciences, Davanagere, India; 2M S Ramiah Medical College, Bangalore, India.


Introduction: Metformin induced impaired vitamin B12 absorption leading to fall in serum cobalamin levels has been described in literature as early as 1971. Approximately 10% of patients and in some studies 30% of patients on metformin therapy developed metformin related cobalamin deficiency. The risk of cobalamin deficiency is comparatively more among patients with vegetarian diet than in non-vegetarians.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of dose and duration of treatment with metformin on serum vitamin B12 levels in type 2 diabetic patients.

Materials and methods: A total of 40 patients ON metformin therapy were chosen. By using a pilot tested pro forma details were collected on demographic data, dietary habits. Duration of treatment with metformin and dose of metformin was also noted. 5 ml of blood will be collected and sent to the central laboratory for serum vitamin B12 estimation. Vitamin B12 estimation was done using a recently developed method called as active vitamin B12 assay.

Results: Our results showed that mean vitamin B12 levels among patients on dose of <1 g/day was 57.8 Pmol/dl and was 40.4 Pmol/l (picomoles/liter) in patients on dose more than 1 g/day. The mean B12 levels were 39.7, 54.3 and 75.9 Pmol/l in duration of treatments <2, 3–5 and >5 years respectively.

Conclusion: Our study shows that dose and duration of metformin did not show any significant relationship with serum vitamin B12 levels.

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