Your browser doesn't support javascript.
Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in critically-ill COVID-19 patients
Clinical Nutrition ESPEN ; 48:504, 2022.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2003958
ABSTRACT
The role of vitamin D in supporting the body’s immune response to respiratory viruses has become a topic of significant interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for critically-ill patients with severe respiratory failure. We therefore were interested in examining the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adult patients admitted to our critical care unit due to COVID-19 infection during the second surge of the virus in the UK. Due to vitamin D being a negative acute phase reactant and serum concentration falling in the presence of a systemic inflammatory response, and following local multidisciplinary discussion involving a Consultant Biochemist, a pragmatic recommendation was made to consider assessing for vitamin D deficiency in patients with (a) a deranged serum adjusted calcium, phosphate or alkaline phosphatase, or (b) evidence of vitamin D supplementation prior to hospital admission. Retrospective data was examined for 168 patients admitted to critical care from 04.10.20 to 04.04.21 and analysed using an excel spreadsheet. Local diagnostic cut-off values determined if serum vitamin D level was deficient, suboptimal or adequate. Table 1 below summarises the results for 33/168 patients (19.6%) who had a serum vitamin D result available. [Formula presented] Acknowledging the small number of tests within our patient population, our results demonstrate a high prevalence of patients (>50%) with a vitamin D level indicative of deficiency. If combined with those with suboptimal levels, this increases further to 75.8%. Interestingly, of the 134 patients (80.4%) with no serum vitamin D result, there was a high prevalence of recognised risk factors for deficiency such as age, presence of obesity and non-white ethnicity. It is also key to consider the impact of reduced sunlight exposure due to seasonality and COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on the vitamin D status of the whole UK population, which led to reissued government guidance1,2 that more people should consider taking a daily vitamin D supplement. Recent clinical guidance identifies that at present, there is little evidence available for vitamin D for preventing or treating COVID-19 but it acknowledges that a low vitamin D status is associated with more severe clinical outcomes3. We support the recommendation that further research is required in this area, including patient outcomes, and if routine vitamin D supplementation could benefit critically-ill COVID-19 patients. References 1. Vitamin D, National Health Service (NHS), 2020. (Accessed June 21, 2021 at ) 2. Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) Rapid review on vitamin D and acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI), 2020. (Accessed June 21, 2021 at ) 3. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) COVID-19 rapid guideline vitamin D [NG187], 2020 (Accessed June 21, 2021 at )
Keywords

Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Type of study: Observational study Language: English Journal: Clinical Nutrition ESPEN Year: 2022 Document Type: Article

Similar

MEDLINE

...
LILACS

LIS


Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Type of study: Observational study Language: English Journal: Clinical Nutrition ESPEN Year: 2022 Document Type: Article