Source: Curr Pain Headache Report  |  Posted 9 years ago

Low vitamin B6 plasma levels often occur in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, especially those with active disease.

Low levels of vitamin B6 are an independent risk factor for thrombosis and might cause hyper-homocysteinaemia, another recognised risk factor for thrombosis, said investigators in Milan, Italy.

Sixty one patients with inflammatory bowel disease were evaluated for vitamin B6 plasma levels. Of these, 32 had Crohn's disease and 29 had ulcerative colitis. Three healthy controls were enrolled for each patient, matched for age and sex.

Median vitamin B6 levels were significantly lower in patients than controls.

These low levels affected proportionately nine times as many patients with active inflammatory bowel disease than patients with quiescent disease.
Patients with active disease had significantly lower median vitamin B6 levels than those with quiescent disease.

Low vitamin B6 levels were also significantly correlated with serum concentrations of C-reactive protein and alpha(1)-acid-glycoprotein.

Hyper-homocysteinaemia more often affected patients with low vitamin B6 than those with normal levels.

The investigators found no statistically significant correlation between vitamin B6 and homocysteine plasma levels.