Prevalence of sub-clinical vitamin-D deficiency and hypothyroidism in children aged 18- 36 months with open anterior fontanelle: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The range of normal closure time of the anterior fontanelle (AF) is generally regarded to be 4 to 26 months. The objectives of this study was to find out the prevalence of subclinical vitamin D deficiency and hypothyroidism in children aged 18-36 months with open AF.Methods: This is a hospital based, cross-sectional study done over a period of 24 months, in which thyroid function tests and 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels were done for healthy children aged 18-36 months with open AF; the latter was also done for equal numbers (n=30) of age and sex matched children with closed AF for control values. The mean vitamin D levels and proportion of children of various categories based on vitamin D levels among both the groups were compared.Results: Open AF was seen in 37 children. Seven of them had obvious causes of delayed AF closure and were excluded. In the remaining 30 children, none of the children had abnormal thyroid function tests. 23.3% of the study group had low vitamin D levels; but, the levels were low even in 37% of control group. The mean vitamin D level of the study group (39.05±17.11 ng/ml) was similar to the control group (37.3±14.74 ng/ml).Conclusions: Neither subclinical vitamin D deficiency nor subclinical hypothyroidism accounted for delayed AF closure in this study.