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What Causes Elevated Vitamin B12 Levels While Suffering From Crohn S Disease?
My son is in a flare of crohns disease in the ileum. His vitamin b12 is elevated at 1224 when the high end was listed as 914. I read this could be a sign of liver disease or blood cancers. Can this also be due to the inflammation and his flare? The bloodwork was posted and everything else including metabolic panels and liver were normal and CBC diff. was normal. His ferritin was low, CRP and SED elevated but expected. Thanks.
Normal values of Vitamin B12 are 200 to 800 picograms per milliliter (pg/mL). Based on the history you seem to have high Vitamin B12 levels which could be due to some underlying cause such as liver disease (such as cirrhosis or hepatitis) and certain blood cancers (such as polycythemia vera and chronic myelogenous leukemia).
A low ferritin level is suggestive of anemia which could be due to bleeding from the intestine or decreased iron absorption from the intestine due to disease process. An acute flare up of Crohn disease will have increased ferritin level, elevated ESR, and exaggeration of symptoms of the disease. You are advised to consult your treating physician for proper evaluation and to rule out any underlying cause.
Hope this answers your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards, Dr. Mohammed Taher Ali
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What Causes Elevated Vitamin B12 Levels While Suffering From Crohn S Disease?
Hello and welcome to ‘Ask A Doctor’ service. I have reviewed your query and here is my advice. Normal values of Vitamin B12 are 200 to 800 picograms per milliliter (pg/mL). Based on the history you seem to have high Vitamin B12 levels which could be due to some underlying cause such as liver disease (such as cirrhosis or hepatitis) and certain blood cancers (such as polycythemia vera and chronic myelogenous leukemia). A low ferritin level is suggestive of anemia which could be due to bleeding from the intestine or decreased iron absorption from the intestine due to disease process. An acute flare up of Crohn disease will have increased ferritin level, elevated ESR, and exaggeration of symptoms of the disease. You are advised to consult your treating physician for proper evaluation and to rule out any underlying cause. Hope this answers your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Mohammed Taher Ali