Maternal and cord blood vitamin B12, folate and homocysteine levels

INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, insufficiency and deficiency of vitamin B12 and folate have been an important health problem. The purpose of the present study was to determine the frequency of vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies in pregnant women and their babies at birth.
METHODS: The study group consisted of 117 pregnant women and their single and term babies in Izmir Ege Maternity Hospital. Analysis of vitamin B12, folate and homocysteine levels were performed from venous blood samples that were obtained from mother and cord blood at birth and questionnaire using face-to-face interview method was applied to included pregnant women. The mean duration of pregnancy was 39.1±0.89 weeks and mean age of pregnant was 28.2±6.2 years.
RESULTS: Vitamin B12 deficiency (<130 pg/ml) was in 88.9% of mothers and 56% of babies. Folate deficiency (<4 ng/ml) was found in 6.8% of mothers, but not found in any babies. The homocysteine levels were high (>8 µmol/l) in 58.1% of mothers and 63.2% of babies. There was a significant correlation between maternal and cord blood vitamin B12, folate and homocysteine levels (p<0.01). However, there was no correlation between maternal vitamin B12 and homocysteine levels (ρ=-0.016, p=0.354).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Low maternal vitamin B12 levels are strongly associated with low cord blood vitamin B12 levels. This data reveals that vitamin B12 deficiency is a preventable public health problem that can occur from the neonatal period.