Elevated serum vitamin B12 levels tied to severity and prognosis of chronic viral liver disease

A team of researchers conducted research in order to investigate the association between vitamin B12 levels, liver disease severity, and long-term prognosis in such patients.

The duration of this study was six months among indoor patients admitted to the department of medicine of a tertiary care hospital in North-Eastern India.

The study findings are:

• Researchers enrolled 50 patients who were diagnosed with chronic liver disease.
• They determined the concentration of Serum vitamin B12 and other blood parameters.
• Participants were predominantly males, with a mean age of 50 years.
• Patients with a history of chronic liver disease had higher mean total serum vitamin B12 concentration than normal people (650 ± 300pg/ml).
• Patients with chronic liver disease Child-Pugh C (1858 ± 359pg/mL) had higher B12 levels than Child-Pugh B (1076 ± 370 pg/mL).
• Four patients died, and their mean B12 was (2113 ± 112 pg/ml).

Concluding further, they said, Falsely elevated levels of B12 are associated with increased excretion of vitamin B12 into serum from the liver, and these serum B12 levels correlate with the severity and prognosis of the disease.

Further reading:

References Sugihara T, Koda M, Okamoto T, et al. Falsely elevated serum vitamin B12 levels were associated with the severity and prognosis of chronic viral liver disease. Yonago Acta Med 2017;60(1):31-39. Dou J, Xu W, Ye B, et al. Serum vitamin B12 levels as indicators of disease severity and mortality of patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure. Clin Chim Acta 2012;413(23-24):1809-1812.