Vitamin D Deficiency and Its Effect on Severity of Asthma in Adult Patients

Abstract

AIM: This study is aimed to assess vitamin D status in asthmatic patients and to assess the relationship between vitamin D level and asthma severity. INTRODUCTION:Asthma is heterogeneous disease, usually characterized by variable airflow obstruction and bronchial hyper-responsiveness. The world health organization stated that approximately 300 million people have asthma. Recently the effects of vitamin D appear to have regulatory effect on every part of immune system, vitamin D deficiency being linked to an array of immunologically based disease focusing on asthma. METHOD:The present study included 50 patients diagnosed as bronchial asthma. The asthmatic patient group was divided into group A, asthma in between attack and group B, exacerbated asthma, that was again divided in subgroup (I), (II), and (III) mild , moderate and severe exacerbated asthma according to symptoms and FEV1. Serum 25 hydroxy vitamin D3 level in all groups was measured by radio immunoassay method and compared between these groups. RESULT:This study shows statistically significant correlation between vitamin D level and severity of asthma. The mean levels of serum 25 hydroxy vitamin D3 in asthmatic patients are: Group A-28.24 ± 1.35 ng/ml, mild persistent-22.6 ± 11.5 ng/ml, moderate persistent -18.33 ± 1.31 ng/ml, and severe persistent -10.45 ± 1.84 ng/ml. P value is <0.01, which is highly significant. CONCLUSION:Lower level of vitamin D is associated with higher severity of asthma. Keyword: VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY, SEVERITY OF ASTHMA, ADULT ATIENTS INTRODUCTION:Asthma is heterogeneous disease, usually characterized variable airflow obstruction, chronic airway inflammation and bronchial hyper-responsiveness (1). Until recently bronchospasm was considered cardinal feature of asthma but now in addition to bronchospasm, airway inflammation is recognized as an essential component of the disease. Asthma prevalence is rising in both the developed and developing world with >3 million people affected worldwide (2,3) . Vitamin D is fat soluble nutrient and a secosteroid hormone produced endogenously in the skin from sun exposure or obtained from foods that naturally contain vitamin D including cod liver oil. Vitamin D deficiency is diagnosed by the concentration of blood S.25 (OH) D3 (vitamin D) level, the primary circulatory form of vitamin D and then 1, 25(OH) D3. Low serum level of vitamin D has been linked to increased risk of asthma exacerbation in children and adults.