medwireNews: Clinicians are only rarely monitoring vitamin B12 levels in people with type 2 diabetes using metformin, research shows.
“Increased awareness of the relationship between metformin and Vitamin B12 deficiency and standardized approaches to monitoring are needed,” say researchers Ronak Ghiya and Maya Fayfman, both from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
The team presented the findings in the late-breaking poster session at the 82nd ADA Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Among 30,803 people prescribed metformin and recorded in the medical records of a single hospital outpatient center in Atlanta, just 2.6% had vitamin B12 measured. The rate of vitamin B12 measurement was 7.5% among people seen in primary care and even lower, at 2.3%, among those attending the endocrinology department.
The monitoring rate was only slightly higher among people with neuropathy, at 10.1% and 3.7% for those seen in primary care and endocrinology, respectively.
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ADA Scientific Sessions; New Orleans, Louisiana: 3–7 June 2022