title: A Turkish 3-center study evaluation of serum folic acid and vitamin B12 levels in Alzheimer disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Alzheimer disease, a common proteopathy of advanced age, is characterized by cortical atrophy, neuron degeneration, neuronal loss, and accumulation of extracellular amyloid β plaques. We aimed to investigate serum vitamin B12 and folic acid levels in Alzheimer disease and other dementia patients, as a potential screening test to detect presymptomatic Alzheimer disease in Turkish patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated folic acid and vitamin B12 levels in Alzheimer disease patients as well as in other dementia and geriatric patients from Ankara, Dokuz Eylül, and Çukurova university hospitals; 290 female and male geriatric subjects were enrolled. Vitamin B12 and folic acid levels were measured using Roche E170 and Beckman Coulter DXI 800 immunoassays (chemiluminescence) according to the manufacturers' guideline in all centers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We evaluated the results of folic acid and vitamin B12 in Alzheimer disease, other dementias and geriatric patients. No significant difference between the groups regarding the routine control of biochemical parameters was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Currently, serum folic and vitamin B12 levels are not diagnostically reliable tests for screening presymptomatic Alzheimer disease. However, the results may statistically be significant if we increase the sample size.
authors.forename: Nuriye Nuray
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Ulusu
authors.forename: Gökhan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.forename: Zübeyde
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Erbayraktar
authors.forename: Ahmet Turan
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Evlice
authors.forename: Sevgi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aras
authors.forename: Görsev
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yener
authors.forename: Aslihan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Avci
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014421:Turkey; D014805:Vitamin B 12 / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005492:Folic Acid; D014805:Vitamin B 12