Recommendations for Status Assessment of Vitamin B-6

Abstract

Since the discovery of vitamin B-6 and the subsequent elucidation of the various roles that vitamin B-6 plays in the body, numerous methods for assessing vitamin B-6 status have been developed. The previous paper points out the available methods and future developments in methodology. A number of direct and indirect methods have been utilized. Just as there are a variety of methods available for determining a specific vitamin B-6 metabolite, so there are an equal variety of approaches to assessing vitamin B-6 status. Both the discussions following each of the papers presented at this Workshop and the follow-up indepth discussion of the papers dealing with status assessment pointed out the importance of recognizing that there is not one “best” method for status assessment./Also, as stressed in the discussion session of the Workshop, it is one thing to develop good methodology; it's another matter to put them into real practical use. The utilization of the methods for status assessment can be applied to studies of healthy individuals, evaluation of individuals with specific pathological conditions, and population studies. However, the choice of the method to be used must take into account the particular situation being studied. The use of urinary vitamin B-6 metabolite excretion in a large population study may be more advantageous than collection of blood samples.