The Importance of the Treatment of Pernicious Anemia on a Quantitative Basis.

Abstract

Pernicious anemia has been demonstrated by Castle and his associates 1 to be a disorder which they have considered a "conditioned deficiency" disease, to indicate that the deficiency syndrome is the result not of a deficient diet but of a deficient utilization of a normal diet owing to a specific defect in the afflicted individual. They have shown that these patients in relapse lack an "intrinsic factor" secreted by the normal stomach, which when properly brought in contact with an "extrinsic factor," namely, appropriate food, causes material to be formed which is necessary for normal blood production. Like all deficiency disorders, whether due to a lack of a hormone, a vitamin, a mineral or other sustances, treatment must consist in supplying the deficient factor on a quantitative basis. In pernicious anemia the degree of deficiency will vary according to: The degree of deficiency of the intrinsic factor (complete or partial).