Abstract:

Amaç   Şanlıurfa is socioeconomically less developed city of Turkey and the dietary habits were different from the other geographic parts of the country. The aim of this study was to find out folic acid (FA) and vitamin B12 (B12) deficiency among pregnant women in this region. Yöntem   Setting of the study was Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Harran University Hospital between June 2001 and June 2002. This study was prospectively designed. 243 pregnant women were studied during their first prenatal visit (average 20 weeks'gestation). The mean age of the pregnants was 26.7 (SD 4.7) years. The samples were analyzed for serum FA, B12 and Complete Bloood Count(CBC). Serum levels of B12 ancl FA were assessed by RIA method. Pearson correlation analysis and SPSS 11.02 for Windows were used for statistical analyzes. Bulgular   Mean values for serum FA and B12 levels werel3.15 ng/ml and 246.90 pg/ml respectively. Among 243 cases, B12 deficiency (< 200 pg/ml) in 80 cases (35-9%), FA deficiency (< 3 ng/ml) in 1 case (0.4% ) and intermecliate FA (3-4 ng/ml) in 1 case (0.4%) was detected. There was a significant positive correlation found between Hemoglobin (Hb) and B12 (r:0.163, p=0.015) and a highly significant positive correlation between Hb and Red blood cell Distribution Width (RDW) (r=-0.388,p=0.000). Sonuç The incidence of B12 and FA deficiency in Şanlıurfa is unknown. Recent evidence suggests that the deficiency of B12 but not for FA is commoner than we thought.

Keywords: