Hyperhomocysteinemia, low vitamin B12, and low folic acid: Are risk factors of cerebral vascular thrombosis in northwest Iran?

Background: Cerebral vascular thrombosis (CVT) is the thrombosis of intracranial and sinuses. The aim of this is to estimate of risk of low folic acid, low vitamin B12, and hyperhomocysteinemia (hyper-Hcys) for CVT.

Materials And Methods: A total of 24 patients with CVT and 36 healthy controls participated in a cross-sectional case-control study. The deficient levels of folic acid and vitamin B12 defined as <10 percentile of folic acid and vitamin B12 level and hyper-Hcys was defined as >90 percentile of homocysteine of control group.

Results: Patients had higher levels of total homocysteine (tHcys) than controls (14.7 ± 6.5 vs. 6.4 ± 2.7 μmol/L, = 0.001). Also, vitamin B12 level in case group was lower compared to control subjects (185.4 ± 58 vs. 299 ± 75 ng/mL, = 0.001). Hyper-Hcys and low vitamin B12 were significantly more prevalent in CVT patients than controls. Although, significant independent association with risk of CVT was found for hyper-Hcys [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 14.3, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.6-77.1, = 0.002] and low vitamin B12 (adjusted OR 24.6, 95% CI: 2.3-262.9, = 0.008). Association between low folic acid and risk of CVT was not significant. A significant negative correlation was found between the levels of tHcys and vitamin B12 ( = -0.32, = 0.01).

Conclusion: Hyper-Hcys and low vitamin B12 were related with the high risk for CVT.