Assessment Of Vitamin B12 And Folic Acid Deficiency In Emergency Department As A Cause Of Acute Presentation Of Dizziness

Abstract

Aims: Dizziness is one of the most common complaints between patients referred to emergency department (ED). The spectrum of etiology is quite large and includes many unknowns, so clinicians confront huge challenges to approach in patients who for the first time refer to ED for dizziness. So far there have been inadequate investigating systematically Vitamin B12 and folic acid deficiency in ED as a cause of acute presentation of dizziness (APD) etiologic factors. In this study, we investigated whether vitamin B12 and folic acid deficiencies play a role of APD etiology.

Material and methods: The study was performed prospectively with 100 APD patients having the first attack and referring to emergency service with no treatment anywhere previously and a control group including 100 volunteer participants. Differences between two groups were compared by the independent two sample t test. Categorical variables were compared between two or more group using the Chi-square test.

Results: Mean vitamin B12 levels were 243.01 +/- 100.1 mg/dl in patients' group and 411.38 +/- 145.6 in control group. Mean folic acid levels were 8.77 +/- 1.33 mg/dl in patients' group and 8.83 +/- 2.71 in control group. Mean vitamin B12 level was lower in patient group than control group compared with each other and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). On the other hand, there was not any difference in folic acid levels. In 26.7% of patients having dizziness with vitamin B12 deficiency did not experienced megaloblastic anemia.

Conclusion: We suggest that especially vitamin B12 levels should be analyzed in patients who admitted to ED for APD.