Association between low serum vitamin D level and retinal venous occlusion at lbn- Alhaitham eye teaching hospital

Abstract

Background: Retinal vein occlusion is the second most common cause of sudden vision loss from retinal vascular diseases, following diabetic retinopathy. The role of vitamin D in maintaining the vascular system is now being increasingly understood and the effect of Vitamin D deficiency on vascular endothelium could possibly have some role to play in the causation of retinal vein occlusion.
 Objective:To estimate serum vitamin D3 (25 OH D) level in patients of retinal vein occlusion and compare it with age and gender -matched controls.
 Subject and methods: This study is a hospital-based, case-control study conducted between October 2017 and February 2018 and included 35 cases of retinal venous occlusion (14 cases of branch retinal vein occlusion and 21 cases of central retinal vein occlusion, no cases of hemiretinal venous occlusion) with onset less than three months were enrolled. These cases were compared with 35 age and gender matched attendants of patients as controls, as they had comparable dietary and socioeconomic condition. Serum vitamin D3 (25 OH D) was done for cases and control group. Student’s t test was used to assess the significance of differences in mean vitamin D levels, while chi square test was used to assess the significance of association and comparison of frequencies in categorical variables. Level of significance of ? 0.05 considered as cutoff for significant difference or association.
 Results: the mean serum vitamin D level was significantly lower in retinal vein occlusion group than controls, (14.21 ± 5.19) ng/ml and (22.70 ± 4.43) ng/ml, respectively, on the other hand, vitamin D level in these cases ranged (7 – 25.80) ng/ml which was also lower than that in controls (range: 14.89 – 33.60)ng/ml, the difference in mean vitamin D level between groups was highly significant (P< 0.001).There was no statistical difference in serum vitamin D between branch and central retinal vein occlusion (P. value 0.34 ).
 Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency was more common in patients with retinal vein occlusion in realtion to healthy population.