Identification of Vitamin B12 Deficiency in Helicobacter pylori Infected Patients

Abstract

Background: H. pylori infection is strongly related with chronic gastritis of the antrum of the stomach, which causes impairment in gastric acid and pepsin secretion, and is thus linked to malabsorption of food-vitamin B12. H. pylori can cause an individual to have a vitamin B12 deficiency. It is also a known contributor to gastritis ulcers and it can prevent to the stomach from being able to absorb the vitamin B12 you consume and leads to a deficiency of vitamin B12. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency of vitamin B12 deficiency in Helicobacter pylori infected patients. Methods: All patients above 13 years of age, of either gender with Helicobacter pylori infection were evaluated for urine vitamin B12 level by human vitamin B12 ElSA kit. The data was analyzed in statistical software (SPSS) and the P-value=0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: One hundred and twenty nine (129) Helicobacter pylori infected patients with means age 44.3176 ± 15.9114 (males) and 49.6308 ± 15.1612 (females) were enrolled and evaluated. Sixty seven (52%) H. pylori infected patients had normal vitamin B12 level, 31 (47%) were males and 36 (53%) were females. Whereas sixty tow (48%) H. pylori infected patient had low vitamin B12 level, 42 (67%) were males and 20 (33%) were females with (p-value 0.02). Conclusions: The frequency of vitamin B12 deficiency observed in H. pylori infected patients in this study (48%). However, there is a significant difference between H. pylori infected male patients and female patients who had deficient in vitamin B12 (68%, 32% respectively) with p value (0.01*).