Serum-Vitamin-B₁₂ Concentration in the Elderly

High Prevalence of Cobalamin Deficiency in Elderly Outpatients

“…Neuropsychologic Results The neuropsychological measures used included the following: (1) Mini Mental State Exam, a brief test of general cognitive status; (2) the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale, a measure of the capacity to regulate purposeful behavior, adapted from Luria's assessment of frontal lobe functioning 29 ; (3) the Brown‐Peterson test, a measure of working memory involving recall of word lists following a concurrent cognitive task 30 ; (4) Luria's word learning test 31 ; (5) the Digit Span subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Revised (WAIS‐R); (6) Visual Reproduction subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale‐Revised; (7) Trail Making Test, a measure of information processing speed and flexibility 32 ; (8) the short form of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) 33 ; (9) the Similarities subtest of the WAIS‐R, a measure of verbal reasoning highly correlated with verbal IQ; (10) a letter cancellation test, a measure of vigilance 34…”

“…Previous investigators have attempted to determine the prevalence of Cbl deficiency in various geriatric populations 5–19 . These estimates have been based on measurements of serum Cbl levels, Cbl absorption, or bone marrow or peripheral blood abnormalities.…”

The Absorption of Vitamin B₁₂ in the Elderly

“…A progressive fall in serum B12 with advancing age has been described by several workers (Boger et al, 1955;Chow et al, 1956 b;Chernish et al, 1957;Gaffney et al, 1957;Cape and Shinton, 1961), and a diminished B12 absorption has been reported in some normal elderly subjects by Glass et al (1954Glass et al ( , 1956) and by Chernish et al (1957) -the absorption being restored to normal by giving intrinsic factor (I.F.) with the oral dose of B12.…”

Temporal Variation of Serum Levels of Vitamin B12 Folate, Iron and Total Iron-Binding Capacity

“…In a large series of ambulant subjects aged 12-94 years, Gaffney et al (1957) noted significantly lower B12 levels in the elderly. Cape and Shinton (1961) found a fall in the serum levels of vitamin B12 in healthy old people which was more marked in those in the seventh decade. Elwood et al (1971) also found lower serum B!2 concentrations in a random sample of healthy old people.…”