[Present-day course of vitamin B 12 deficiency anemia]

By recent data, B12-deficiency anemia occurs in 14% of overall anemia cases. It arises mostly from gastrointestinal lesions, atrophic gastritis being the main etiological factor. Common clinical signs of the disease (glossitis, nervous disturbances, hemolysis) manifest in only 10-23% of the patients, hematological evidence of pancytopenia is registered in about half of the cases. The early diagnosis may be established with spinal puncture. That of the iliac bone tubera is a method of choice in elderly subjects.