Background: Recurrent aphthous ulcers (RAU) are one of the most common ulcerative lesions of the oral cavity with a prevalence rate of approximately 50-66%. The prevalence of hematinic deficiencies including ferritin and vitamin B12 deficiencies and their role in the prophylaxis and development of RAU is not well known. Some studies have reported no association between RAU and deficiencies of iron, folate or vitamin B12. While other studies have demonstrated a high prevalence of hematinic deficiencies in patients with RAU. Hence the present study was conducted to determine the association between levels of vitamin B12 and serum ferritin in patients with RAU.
Materials and Method: This was a case control study conducted in a tertiary care hospital in South India from May 2015 to May 2016. The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee. Informed consent was taken from all the patients. After recording patients demographics like age, gender, occupation, address 3ml blood was drawn from cases and controls centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 10 minutes for the analysis of serum Ferritin by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method and serum B12 by radio immunoassay. The data was expressed as Mean ± SD. Students Unpaired‘t’ test is used for comparing biochemical parameters between cases and controls and P value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results and Discussion: Most cases were in males aged between 35 - 45 years. Most cases of RAU were minor, only four cases were herpetiform. The patients were classified as having minor aphthous ulcers, major aphthous ulcers, or herpetiform aphthous ulcers according to the criteria of Lehner. In the present study, 64% of the patients had low serum ferritin levels and 54% of the patients had low serum vitamin B12 levels. In the present study, statistically significant differences were observed in the serum levels of ferritin and vitamin B12 between the two groups
Conclusion: In the present study, 64% of the patients had low serum ferritin levels and 54% of the patients had low serum vitamin B12 levels. Screening aphthous ulcer patients by measuring serum ferritin and vitamin B12 levels is necessary, as to prevent recurrent aphthous ulcer. It is also essential for recurrent aphthous ulcer patients to have nutritional diet containing iron and vitamin B12.
Keywords: Iron Deficiency Anaemia, Serum Ferritin, Aphthous Ulcer, Vitamin B12
