Authors

Hisham Alsayad; Muhidien Jouma; Ghada Alakhras; Saeed Taifour

Published in

Journal of Laboratory Diagnosis, Volume 4, Issue 7, October 2007

Abstract

Metformin is increasingly used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes to control blood glucose and as assistant treatment of type1 and in some cases as a treatment for obesity. Metformin has an excellent safety profile, (recent studies show Metformin as an excellent anti-oxidant). On the other hand many studies showed lower vitamin B12 and Folate in Syrian population so Syrian diabetic patients who had been receiving metformin may develop severe vitamin B12 deficiency.
Objective: To assess the vitamin B12 status of patients with type 2 diabetes who had been receiving metformin treatment for at least one year.

Methods: Patients with type 2 diabetes attending a diabetes clinic were included in a cross-sectional cohort study. Patients exposed to metformin for more than one year (n=35) were compared with a non-exposed control group (n=65). Serum cobalamin and other variables reflecting vitamin B12 status were measured.
Results: Patients on metformin had lower cobalamin (277±77 vs. 411±150 pg/ml; p<0.05) and lower folate (6.7±2.1 vs. 9.8±2.3 ng/ml; p<0.05), and higher Hcy (14.5±4 vs. 11.57 µmol/L; p<0.05).

Conclusion: Patients exposed to long-term metformin therapy had 33.55% lower cobalamin, 26.15% lower folate and 20.4% higher Hcy serum concentrations than control subjects. Such changes indicate a potential risk for development of vitamin B12 deficiency. Our results highlight the necessity of checking B12 status during metformin therapy for avoiding the problems resulting by B12 deficiency.

Link to read full paper

http://scla.org.sy/magazine/issues/4_7/194.html