Introduction: To determine serum vitamin B 12 in pregnant women in India in second or third trimester and its correlation with red cell indices in order to determine an inexpensive screening tool to ascertain vitamin B 12 deficiency.

Material & Methods: In this prospective study, venous blood samples of consecutive 200 pregnant women in second or third trimester of pregnancy were included and their haematological and serum vitamin B 12 were determined including blood complete picture.

Results: Mean ± SD age of the subjects was 21.54 years (SD = 2.73). It was found that 72 had anemia. 25 (12.5%) women had vitamin B 12 levels below 647 pg/ml and were thus included. 37 had iron deficiency anaemia as their ferritin and iron levels were low and were thus excluded from the study. Significant correlation was seen between serum vitamin B 12 and Hb , PCV and MCHC. MCV and RDW did not show any  significant correlation with vitamin B 12 levels.

Conclusion: We could not establish a statistical correlation between the all important MCV and vitamin B12 because it may be normal in combined deficiency of iron and vitamin B12/ folate or even in sublinical vitamin B12 deficiency. There is an urgent requirement to develop a non expensive marker to screen out patients of vitamin B12 deficiency as repeated vitamin B12 level estimation is expensive and cannot be affordable to majority in developing countries. Also, there is requirement to lay down reference values for vitamin B 12 during various phases of pregnancy.

Keywords:  Vitamin B 12,  Red Cell Indices, pregnancy.

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Dr Rigvardhan

Professor, Dept of Pathology, Saraswati Medical College, Unnao – 209859; India