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Research Article| Volume 1, ISSUE 4, P775-796, December 1981

Laboratory Assessment of Folate Status

  • Neville Colman
    Correspondence
    Corresponding author: Veterans Administration Medical Center, 130 West Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, New York, 10468
    Affiliations
    Director, Hematology Laboratory and Blood Bank, and Chief, Hematopathology Research, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Bronx, New York

    Assistant Professor of Pathology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York
    Search for articles by this author
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-2712(18)31080-1
Laboratory Assessment of Folate Status
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      Clinical situations in which folate deficiency should be suspected and clinical evidence of folate deficiency are described. Laboratory tests used to assess folate status are primarily based on the developing sequence of events in the peripheral blood and bone marrow, and include determinations of serum folate, neutrophil hypersegmentation, urinary excretion of metabolites, erythrocyte folate, macrocytosis, and megaloblastic changes in bone marrow. The deoxyuridine suppression test is especially valuable in defining the presence of megaloblastosis and in differentiating between folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies.
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      Footnotes

      Supported in part by the Veterans Administration and by USPHS Grant #HD14837.

      Identification

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-2712(18)31080-1

      Copyright

      © 1981 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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