A Turkish 3-center study evaluation of serum folic acid and vitamin B12 levels in Alzheimer disease

Abstract

Background/aim: Alzheimer disease, a common proteopathy of advanced age, is characterized by cortical atrophy, neuron degeneration, neuronal loss, and accumulation of extracellular amyloid β plaques. We aimed to investigate serum vitamin B12 and folic acid levels in Alzheimer disease and other dementia patients, as a potential screening test to detect presymptomatic Alzheimer disease in Turkish patients.

Materials and methods: We evaluated folic acid and vitamin B12 levels in Alzheimer disease patients as well as in other dementia and geriatric patients from Ankara, Dokuz Eylül, and Çukurova university hospitals; 290 female and male geriatric subjects were enrolled. Vitamin B12 and folic acid levels were measured using Roche E170 and Beckman Coulter DXI 800 immunoassays (chemiluminescence) according to the manufacturers' guideline in all centers.

Results: We evaluated the results of folic acid and vitamin B12 in Alzheimer disease, other dementias and geriatric patients. No significant difference between the groups regarding the routine control of biochemical parameters was observed.

Conclusion: Currently, serum folic and vitamin B12 levels are not diagnostically reliable tests for screening presymptomatic Alzheimer disease. However, the results may statistically be significant if we increase the sample size.