Endocrine Abstracts

Vitamin D is not only essential for maternal health but insufficient levels during pregnancy and breast feeding can lead to infantile rickets or osteomalacia in their offspring. NICE recommends that vitamin D supplements should only be offered to pregnant women with dark skin, those who usually cover their skin, vegans and women between the ages of 19–24. Although it is widely known that these women are at high risk of vitamin D deficiency, the incidence of vitamin D insufficiency amongst Caucasian women has been much less widely studied.

We wished to investigate the incidence of vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women attending an Endocrine Antenatal Clinic. Vitamin D status in 29 pregnant women was ascertained between April and June 2009. Half of the patients were Caucasians while the rest were of Indian subcontinent or Middle Eastern origin.

In the 14 non Caucasians, vitamin D levels were deficient (<20 nmol/l) in 57% (8 patients), depleted (20–60 nmol/l) in 36% (5 patients) and sufficient (>60 nmol/l) in only 1 patient (7%).

In the 15 Caucasian women, vitamin D levels were depleted in 12 women (80%) and sufficient only in 3 (20%).

Discussion: We conclude that vitamin D depletion is a significant and common problem in pregnant women attending the Endocrine antenatal clinic. An unexpected finding was the high number of Caucasian women with vitamin D insufficiency. We measured vitamin D levels during the Spring and Summer months and it is likely that hypovitaminosis D would be even more prevalent during the winter. Further work is underway to establish whether this is a finding peculiar to pregnant patients with endocrine abnormalities or if it is a more widespread problem amongst the general pregnant population in our city.