The effect of metformin on the absorption of vitamin B12, folic acid, homocysteine and creatinin; a cross sectional study in Karbala province

Recent studies have related to estimate the effect of metformin and other anti-diabetic medication on the absorption of vitamin B12, folic acid, creatinin and homocysteine in patients with diabetes-mellitus type 2. This cross-sectional study will be accomplished over patients with different parameters including weight, age, body mass index, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, duration of metformin usage, and the dosage of metformin. The results will be studied under light of control group. Samples size of 300 diabetic patients of type 2, with age ranged between 35-75 years, and a control group consisting of 30 healthy people will be collected from Karbala province/Iraq. As a result, the diabetic patients that taking metformin recorded higher value for both vitamin B12 and homocysteine, and lower value was recorded in term of folate in comparison with patients on other antidiabetic drugs or patients on baseline (recently diagnosed). Also, there is not statistically differences in the term of (age, weight, BMI and creatinin) between the groups under studying, meanwhile a statistically differences were observed in term of HbA1c and fasting blood glucose between the investigated groups. Further, the results revealed that the duration and the dose of metformin have considerable impact over vitamin B12 deficiency deterioration.