A simple proof of vitamin D deficiency and inflammation relation: single center study, over two thousand patients

Abstract

Aim: Vitamin D deficiency is a very common condition in the world. Although vitamin D appears to be effective mainly on calcium and bone metabolism, it is an important molecule that also affects immune functions and inflammation. In our study, we tried to evaluate the contribution of vitamin D deficiency to inflammation by examining the platelet indices of patients with low and normal vitamin D levels. Methods: Healthy patients who applied to internal medicine outpatient clinics of our hospital for routine control in 2017 were included in our study. Patients are included in the study by following needed criteria; creatinine <1.3 mg/dl, hemoglobine >12 gr/dl, vitamin B12 >150 pg/dl, red cell distribution width <14 fL, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) between 1-5 IU/L and C-reactive protein (CRP) <10 mg/dl. Patients were divided into two groups, those with vitamin D less than 10 ng/ml as the study group and those above 30 ng/ml as the control group. Results: A total of 2179 patients, 644 male and 1535 female, were included in the study. 797 patients constituted the study group (27.1% male), and 1382 patients constituted the control group (31% male). When the two groups were compared in terms of platelet indices, we found that mean platelet volume (MPV) and plateletcrit (PCT) were significantly higher in the study group (p<0.001, p<0.001). Conclusion: In our study, we found that MPV and PCT values increased significantly with vitamin D deficiency. We attributed this result to the absence of the anti-inflammatory activity of vitamin D. As a result, treating a patient’s vitamin D deficiency can also protect patients from cardiovascular or autoimmune diseases through the anti-inflammatory effect of vitamin D.