Volume : 6, Issue : 11, November - 2017

A study of Vitamin B12 Deficiency as a cause of severe anemia in Pregnancy: Is there a Need for antenatal Supplementation?

Juhi Godara, Prof. Yashodhara Pradeep, Prof. Renu Singh

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">Anemia in pregnancy has been &nbsp;synonymous with iron-deficiency anemia&nbsp; but there is a changing trend with emerging evidence of macrocytic anemia. The aim of our study was to evaluate the clinical profile of patients having severe anemia in pregnancy.It is a prospective cohort study included all antenatal patients presenting with severe anemia (hemoglobin &lt;7 gm%) over a period of 1 year from July 2014 to June 2015 in the Department of OBG, KGMC, Lucknow, India.On comparing the results , it was found that although iron-deficiency remains the most important cause of&nbsp; severe anemia (74.9%) but there is also a high prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency (56.4%) amongst these cases of severe anemia in pregnancy. </span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">This study done will be helpful in&nbsp; providing useful inputs to National Anemia Control Programme and may be helpful to evolve appropriate guidelines for adequate supplementation of vitamin B12 during pregnancy.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:&#10;200%;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size:12.0pt;&#10;line-height:200%;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>