Do MCI patients with vitamin B12 deficiency have distinctive cognitive deficits?

BMC Research Notes

Alexandre de-Mendonça¹  Manuela Guerreiro³  Ana Verdelho⁴  Isabel Pavão Martins³  Margarida Vicente⁵  Isabel Santana⁵  Ulrike Albers⁶  Dina Silva² 

[1] Institute of Molecular Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal;Instituto de Farmacologia e Neurociências, Edifício Egas Moniz, Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Avenida Prof. Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal;Laboratory of Language Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, and Hospital de Santa Maria, Lisbon, Portugal;Department of Neurology, Santa Maria Hospital, Lisbon, Portugal;Department of Neurology, Coimbra University Hospital, Coimbra, Portugal;Department of Health and Human Performance, Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences-INEF, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

关键词: Neuropsychological tests;    Memory impairment;    Vitamin B12 deficiency;    Cognitive decline;    Mild cognitive impairment;   

Others  :  1141743
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-6-357

 received in 2012-12-17, accepted in 2013-09-03,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Vitamin B12 deficiency is common in older people, and may be responsible for reversible dementia. Low serum vitamin B12 levels were also observed in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). It is not known whether patients with vitamin B12 deficiency have a distinctive profile of cognitive impairment different from the episodic memory deficit usually observed in MCI.

Results

From a cohort of 310 patients with MCI followed in a memory clinic in Lisbon, only 10 cases with vitamin B12 deficiency were found. From collaboration with other neurologists, 5 further patients with vitamin B12 deficiency were added. These cases were compared to MCI patients with normal vitamin B12 levels in a ratio 1:3. The duration of subjective cognitive symptoms was significantly shorter in MCI patients with B12 deficiency (1.2±1.0 years) as compared to MCI patients with normal vitamin B12 levels (3.4±3.0 years, p<0.001, Student’ t test). There were no statistically significant differences in the neuropsychological tests between MCI patients with and without vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 was started in MCI patients with vitamin B12 deficiency, with no noticeable clinical improvement.

Conclusion

MCI patients with low levels of vitamin B12 had no particular profile of cognitive impairment, however vitamin B12 deficiency might have precipitated the onset of symptoms. The effect of vitamin B12 supplementation in patients with MCI and low vitamin B12 levels should be clarified by future prospective studies.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Silva et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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