Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is a growing public concern amongst ethnic minority groups in the UK. This is related to both skin colour and clothing.

Aim: To investigate vitamin D status in four ethnic groups in an inner city obstetric practice. This was part of an ongoing study of vitamin D deficiency and supplementation in pregnancy.

Subjects: Women from St Mary’s Hospital, London were recruited at 28 weeks gestation from the antenatal clinic. Forty-five of Caucasian, Indian Asian, Middle Eastern and Black African women were studied. Approval from St Mary’s NHS trust Ethical Committee was obtained.

Methods: Plasma vitamin D concentrations were quantified using IDS OCTEIA 25-hydroxy vitamin D enzymeimmunoassay kit; PTH was measured with IMMULITE 2500 Intact PTH; calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase levels were measured using Olympus assays.

Results intermim analysis (n=180): Calcium and phosphate were similar in all groups (calcium P=0.1762; phosphate P=0.1603). Vitamin D was significantly lower in Indian Asian (19.0±2.3 ng/ml) and Middle Eastern (23.5±9.0 ng/ml) groups compared to the Caucasian group (37.0±15.7 ng/ml) (P=0.0072). PTH was significantly higher in the in Asian (9.0±7.6 pmol/l) and Middle Eastern (6.4±4.1 pmol/l) compared to the Caucasian group (2.5±1.5 pmol/l) (P=0.0001) representing secondary hyperparathyroidism in the Asian and Middle Eastern groups.

Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency is a major issue in our inner city antenatal clinic where over half the population belong to different ethnic groups. This study is going on to investigate the utility of a single versus daily vitamin D supplement in the third trimester of pregnancy in multiple ethnic groups.