Talk:Pernicious anemia

April edits
I added some info about PA in a nice edit. Left to add is the relationship between PA and atrophic gastritis...

Understandable?
Do you current editors think this article is understandable? I stated in a previous entry that readers can look up the words they do not know, but is that fair enough? I'm just trying to keep this as legit, helpful, and understandable as possible for everyone. Thanks! OnFire4Jesus (talk) 03:17, 23 March 2008 (EST)

NEUROLOGICAL manifestations:
Neurological manifestations of B12 deficiency include:

Dementia,

Posterlateral sclerosis of the spinal cord,

peripheral neuropathy,

anosmia, and

optic nerve disease.

Pernicious anemia most usually presents via neurological symptoms in societies where food is fortified with folic acid (because folate-fortified foods obscure the better known megaloblastic anemia seen in red blood cells when inadequate B12 is accompanied by inadequate folate.

The gold standard of current knowledge
[Https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9030741/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9030741/]

THIS is the article from which you should be taking updated information on Pernicious Anemia, which does not always show on a blood smear, doesn't necessarily cause stomach cancer, and the patients with which are not particularly well-served with the simple expedient of x hydrocobalamin every y weeks.

When hydrocobalamin was found to be effective in treating PA, it was assumed that everything frum then on would be rosy. And it was assumed that because it was a "rare disease" further research would be a very low priority.

Medicine now has to deal with far more PA patients, with far wider scope of signs and symptoms, than ever assumed. It may even turn out that PA is not a rare or orphan disease. To quote the paper: ". . . PA associated with common variable immunodeficiency, low serum immunoglobulin concentrations, selective IgA deficiency, or the childhood PA, should be distinguished from classic PA". PA is not a straightforward disease. It can be caused in several different ways, all involving the immune system, and can present in a multiplicity of ways. It cam be erroneously diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis - based on a patient's having sustained nerve damage in a similar fashion, i.e. the fatty insulation around nerves suffers failure. Etc. 70.49.18.153 (talk) 19:38, 2 April 2024 (UTC)