ABSTRACT
Background: Health benefits of vitamin D has been proved by a large number of studies, however, to the best of our knowledge there has been no study investigating the effect of mega dose of vitamin D on gestational diabetes mellitus [GDM]. This study was the first to assess the effect of postpartum injection of mega dose of vitamin D on blood pressure [BP] in GDM
Methods: This is a randomized controlled clinical trial conducted on 58 pregnant women suffering from GDM who were randomly assigned into control [CG, n = 24] and intervention group [IG, n = 24]. Patients in intervention group [IG] received an intramuscular injection of 300,000 IU of vitamin D. BP, Serum concentration of 25 [OH] D3, parathyroid hormone [PTH], calcium, phosphor, diastolic [DBP] and systolic blood pressure [SBP] were measured at the baseline and after 3 months
Results: Mega dose supplementation resulted in increased serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D concentrations in IG compared with the CG [62.10 nmol/l compared with 24.10 nmol/l, P < 0.001]. Additionally, injection of vitamin D significantly reduced SBP [98.1 +/- 9.0 mmHg compared with 106.9 +/- 15.9 mmHg, P = 0.02] and slightly decreased DBP but it was not statistically significant [63.3 +/- 1.5 mmHg compared with 73.6 +/- 10.3 mmHg, P = 0.13]. Serum PTH significantly decrease after intervention in IG compared with CG [2.88 +/- 1.60 pmol/l compared with 4.78 +/- 2.4 pmol/l P= 0.003]
Conclusions: This study strongly improved vitamin D status in women with GDM and consequently confirmed the efficacy of a mega dose of vitamin D injection on decreasing of BP