[Use of vitamin B12 in the combined therapy of viral hepatitis].

The microbiological method was used in 168 virus hepatitis patients aged 16-55 years to study the content of unbound vitamin B12 in the blood serum over the time of the disease before administration of cyanocobalamin and in the course of its application in a dose of 100 and 200 micrograms intramuscularly every other day for 3-4 weeks. In the acute stage of the disease, the patients showed an appreciable hypercyanocobalaminemia that correlated well with the disease severity and with the magnitudes of liver function tests. Cyanocobalamin administered to the patients intramuscularly in a dose of 100 micrograms every other day exerted a more remarkable normalizing effect on the level of unbound vitamin B12, bilirubin, the thymol test, aldolase and alanine aminotransferase of the blood as compared to that produced by the drug injected in a dose of 200 micrograms.