Levels of serum vitamin d among patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its association with severity: a case control study

Abstract

Aim: To assess the levels of serum vitamin D among patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its association with severity

Study Design: A case control study

Place and Duration: This study was conducted in Bilawal Medical College, LUMHS Jamshoro, Pakistan  from May 2019 to May 2020.

Methodology: Total 140  patients were registered in the study, consisting of 70 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and 70 control subjects for comparison. The stage of COPD was made according to the guidelines of Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Diseases (GOLD) and the stages II, III and IV were marked as advanced COPD. Equally inferential and descriptive statistics were achieved in SPSS version 24.0.

Results: The mean serum vitamin D concentration was 16.20 ± 8.20 ng / ml in patients of COPD and ranges from 9 ng / ml to 39.1 ng / ml. The mean serum vitamin D concentration in the control group was 32.81 ± 13.11 ng / ml (mean ± SD) and ranged from 17.30 ng / ml to 90.70 ng / ml and statistically significant difference was found between control and patients’ group (p <0.0001). The stage II COPD classified as moderate cases were (n=21)30%, Stage III COPD cases classified as severe were (25) 35.7% and stage IV COPD cases classified as very severe were (n=24) 34.3%. Serum levels of vitamin D have been institute to decline with advancing COPD severity.

Conclusions: Advanced COPD patients had low levels of serum vitamin D in comparison to the heathy people, and serum levels of vitamin D in COPD patients were correlated with the severity according to Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Diseases guidelines.