How Long Does Pernicious Anemia Takes To Get Cured?

Posted on Fri, 7 Dec 2012

Question: How much long will take for my pernicious amemia to correct? Its bein 8 months.i have had six loading injections first.and after that 1 every three months.
At start my b12 levels were 83
But now. They wont check my b12 levels again.
I feel tired all the time and my heart beat increases even if i walk.and dizziness if i stand.

Answered by Dr. Abhijit Deshmukh (3 hours later)

Hi,

Thanks for the query.

I hope by now you would have known that pernicious anemia is an autoimmune disorder where auto antibodies destroy the cells that absorb vitamin B12 from your stomach. You need specialized tests like anti-intrinsic factor or parietal cell antibodies and gastric biopsy to confirm it. I hope these tests have been done. Else, it may be possible that you suffer from megaloblastic anemia (B12 deficiency) which may have other reasons like poor dietary intake or worm infestation or antibodies as mentioned above.

Usually symptoms of B12 deficiency start improving in 3-4 days of injection therapy and anemia in a weeks time. You have not mentioned your hemoglobin levels to see how severe your anemia was and to comment more.

However I suggest you to check your hemoglobin levels again to ensure it has normalized or still low. If it is still low and your symptoms persist it could be because of anemia and then you need to find another cause for anemia like concomitant iron deficiency
If hemoglobin is normal then you need to look for other causes like thyroid disorder, cardiac problem (unlikely) or just anxiety.

Hope I have answered your query. Please to get back to me if you have any further questions.

Wish you a speedy recovery...

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad

Follow up: Dr. Abhijit Deshmukh (13 hours later)

Thanx for your answer.well when this happened in march they checked my heart and they said it was perfectly fine.And my thyroid was also fine.at that time my Hb was 11.7 and now recently my Hb was 16 but my cell level division i dont know the medical term..i think there are three or four things there...one was high and the other was low.i am a little better then before. The main thing i wanted to ask you is that do people recover from pernicious anemia... Is the recovery slow? Because right now i cant even perform my day to day activities.Very tired all the time.
And final thing can anxiety do this all.. I read some where the b12 and depression have a link
Thanksfor all your help

Regards

XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Abhijit Deshmukh (9 hours later)

Hi XXXXXXX,
Well as i had said you may be suffering from B12 deficiency causing megaloblastic anemia and not pernicious anemia. Megaloblastic anemia may be due to nutritional causes or worm infestation however pernicious anemia is a subtype of megaloblastic anemia in which there are auto antibodies against your gastric cell lining causing B12 malabsorption and thus deficiency which needs specialized tests to confirm this diagnosis.
Your symptoms don't seem to be due to B12 deficiency as recovery from fatigue, tiredness improves before anemia is corrected in B12 deficiency, in your case you hemoglobin has normalized but you still are symptomatic.
Look for other factors like stress, depression or chronic fatigue syndrome
unlikely it is due to B12 deficiency
hope this answers your query
please do reply in case of any further questions
wish you a speedy recovery

Note: Do you have more questions on diagnosis or treatment of blood disorders? Ask An Expert/ Specialist Now

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar