I'm embarrassed; vit B vs E deficiency

[WashMe]

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While reading p. 411 of FA, I learned for the first time that vitamin E deficiency can cause demyelination... I feel like I should have known this.

My question is this:
If a patient has signs of dorsal column pathology and anemia, is there any way to differentiate B versus E deficiency without info pertaining to homocysteine, methylmalonic acid, or mean corpuscular volume?

 

[mrmandrake]

I'm not super sure here but I think that vitamin E deficiency is very rare and so if you see it in a question is probably going to be associated with some other disease that causes fat malabsorption that leads to the deficiency. I also missed a question about vitamin E deficiency and the type of spinal cord lesion it causes.

 

[WashMe]

I'm not super sure here but I think that vitamin E deficiency is very rare and so if you see it in a question is probably going to be associated with some other disease that causes fat malabsorption that leads to the deficiency. I also missed a question about vitamin E deficiency and the type of spinal cord lesion it causes.

Ahhh, thanks man 🙂 I tend to not think about the supporting info when I memorize this stuff, but it really is the key.

 

[priam18]

Just had a question on UWorld about this.

CF causes decreased pancreatic hormones, which can cause fat malabsorption and subsequent sx from vitamin E deficiency. If the patient was taking a multivitamin (they all contain b), unlikely they'd have vitamin b deficiency.

 

[SirGecko]

While reading p. 411 of FA, I learned for the first time that vitamin E deficiency can cause demyelination... I feel like I should have known this.

My question is this:
If a patient has signs of dorsal column pathology and anemia, is there any way to differentiate B versus E deficiency without info pertaining to homocysteine, methylmalonic acid, or mean corpuscular volume?

I am pretty sure if all they gave you was dorsal columns/spinocerebellar tract and a vitamin deficiency you would have to be given either something indicating how the deficiency came about or another symptom that is unique to one or the other. So something like hemolytic anemia vs. megaloblastic anemia.


Fun vitamin E fact! Vitamin E can be used to treat abetalipoproteinemia. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

 

[quepatho]

I just had a question about vitamin E deficiency from UW (and B12 wasn't an answer choice, thankfully or I probably would have missed it out of laziness).

The thing that clued me in to vitamin E was the symptom of "hemolytic anemia" (I do NOT believe you'd see that with B12, correct me if I'm wrong). vitamin E is an antioxidant that protects RBC membranes (IIRC). So you would expect hemolysis, perhaps, with vitamin E deficiency.

Also, please for the love of god don't post threads like "I'm embarrassed I don't know this" cause you know what? You're scoring a lot higher than most people and probably most people don't know it either (and we're not embarrassed by to say so).

Only reason I had any idea what was going on was cause I JUST had a question about it.

If you want to know more reference Q. id 1806 [334541] from UWorld and it will explain the situation thoroughly and probably better than I did.

 

[DrDrToBe]

Vitamin E is also used to tx Alzheimer's disease because of it's awesome antioxidant properties. Just learned that from UW today.