Pernicious anaemia among Asians in Singapore.

Abstract

In an investigation of 40 consecutive cases of megaloblastic anaemia admitted to the Medical Unit, Thomson Road General Hospital, Singapore, from mid-1962 until the end of 1965, six patients (four Chinese and two Indians) were found to fulfil all the criteria for a diagnosis of pernicious anaemia. All six had megaloblastic marrows, histamine-fast (maximal stimulation) achlorhydria, very low serum vitamin-B12 levels, and an inability to absorb this vitamin orally, this inability being corrected by the addition of intrinsic factor. These cases are worth reporting, because pernicious anaemia has not hitherto been reported in Singapore and Malaysia, and also because of the paucity of reports of pernicious anaemia in Chinese and Indians.