Was MMA and/or homocysteine tested and what were the results?
30 % of the respondents who answered this question were tested for MMA and/or homocysteine.
More than half of the respondents who knew their results had a too high value of MMA in the blood in accordance with the average reference value that is used in the Netherlands and were therefore very probably B12 deficient.
More than half of the respondents who knew their results had a too high value of MMA in the blood in accordance with the average reference value that is used in the Netherlands and were therefore very probably B12 deficient.
Although the MMA test is more sensitive than the serum B12 test, a good MMA value cannot entirely exclude a deficiency. There is also a grey area (one in six people who had been tested for MMA fell within this grey area) and there are different reference values in different laboratories as well as in scientific literature. There are also a number of factors that can affect the value of MMA. Read more here.
MMA in blood
MMA in urine
Homocysteine
MMA in urine
Over a quarter of the patients who had their MMA measured in urine clearly had too high values (and certainly a B12 deficiency) and 35.6 % were in the so called grey area where the results cannot be considered decisive.
Homocysteine
Of the respondents who knew their homocysteine results, approximately a third had definite high values, clearly indicating a B12 deficiency. A good homocysteine value cannot exclude a vitamin B12 deficiency.