Schilling test /shil″ing/ [Robert F. Schilling, American hematologist, b. 1919] , a diagnostic test for pernicious anemia in which vitamin B12 tagged with radioactive cobalt is administered orally, and GI absorption is measured by determining the radioactivity of urine samples collected over a 24-hour period. Normal findings show excretion of 8% to 40% of radioactive vitamin B12 within 24 hours. In people with pernicious anemia, the ability to absorb vitamin B12 from the GI tract is reduced so that excretion of radioactive material in the urine is reduced. This test is rarely used today.
