Background: Hypovitaminosis D is a very common prevalence in India as well as Middle East. Studies indicate the frequency to be anywhere between 44-96% among adults in Middle east, while in India it is estimated to range in between 50 – 94%. Our report is an attempt to study vitamin D status from two tropical countries; India and Bahrain and present status of vitamin D deficiency as well as insufficiency in a comparison summary.Methods: This retrospective study in our reference lab included data from a total of 2591 samples from Bahrain and 2596 samples from India. Serum vitamin D estimation was done by chemiluminescence immunoassay or CLIA and reported as per the classification given by the US Endocrine Society. Our reference laboratory provides diagnostic services to Bahrain and thus data from both the countries were available for analysis.Results: Our analysis detected vitamin D deficiency to be 66.2% among samples from India in comparison to 41.4% from Bahrain, and this difference was statistically significant at p<0.0001. Further, the average vitamin D levels in the cohort were detected to be higher in Bahrain samples at 24.0±11.6 ng/ml in comparison to samples from India at 18.2±14.4 ng/ml and statistically significant at p<0.0001.Conclusions: Many studies have documented the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in a region-specific manner. Our report presents the picture of vitamin D status between two tropical countries to highlight the difference in vitamin D deficiency prevalence in two arid and semi-arid regions of the world.

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Background: Conventional serum markers are routinely recommended to assess heart health. However, many new biochemical markers like lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) has been studied as an efficient cardiac risk marker. Our report is an attempt to present correlation between traditional lipid markers and Lp-PLA2 in a pan-India cohort. Materials and Methods: The study cohort included a total of 10347 pan-Indians including 5945 males and 4402 females respectively. The serum lipid parameters estimated include triglycerides, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol as well as total cholesterol by the technology of photometry. Results: The frequency of high Lp-PLA2 detected in our study was 6.4% and the frequency between males at 9.3% and females at 2.5% was detected to be significant at p<0.0001. Linear regression analysis detected significant positive association of high Lp-PLA2 with LDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol at p<0.05, while the trend with HDL-cholesterol was also significant. However, Lp-PLA2 as an independent marker was not detected to be significant in relation to the lipid indices studied. Conclusion: Though Lp-PLA2 has been associated with risk factor for acute coronary crisis, its clinical value remains controversial. Our report though detected significant association of Lp-PLA2 with various lipid parameters, independent value remains questionable.