Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: Vitamin D deficiency is rarely considered or treated in critically ill patients. Deficiency of 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH) D) prior to hospital admission might be a significant predictor of short and long term all cause patient mortality in a critically ill patient. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in hospitalized patients and its relation to the length of stay and outcome of hospitalization.

Methods: Prospective cohort study performed on eighty patients admitted to internal medicine department, with acute deterioration of their chronic illness. Four groups of diseases were included, namely chronic liver diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, cerebrovascular stroke and heart failure. The patients were followed up till their discharge, or transfer, or death. Patients were sampled for their vitamin D level on admission and were divided according to their vitamin D status into sufficient, insufficient and deficient. Statistical methods and analysis of the present study was conducted using SPSS V17 program.

Results: Vitamin D level had a significant inverse correlation with length of hospital stay (r=−0.648) (P=<0.001). In vitamin D deficient and insufficient groups, there was a significant difference between survivors and non-survivors as regard vitamin D levels and inverse correlation between vitamin D level and outcome of hospital admission.

Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are significantly associated with a longer hospital stay and a poor outcome of hospital admission in comparison to control.