PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Muhammad Tufail
AU  - Philip Coakley
AU  - Ashton Harper
AU  - Pandina Kwong
AU  - Stuart Jones
AU  - Bridget Hall
AU  - Angela Hauser
AU  - Ajitha Jayaratnam
AU  - Michael Apps
TI  - Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in TB patients in an East London population
DP  - 2012 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P2575
VI  - 40
IP  - Suppl 56
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P2575.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P2575.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2012 Sep 01; 40
AB  - Introduction:There is a well-established link between vitamin D (25(OH)D) deficiency and TB, although in vivo association is still contentious.Aims:This retrospective case control study aimed to compare the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in cases diagnosed with TB in 3 East London Boroughs to controls, who were defined as non-respiratory inpatients who were not on vitamin D supplements and in whom 25(OH)D assay was performed during the study period.Methods:We compared 25(OH)D levels in patients diagnosed with active TB with controls during a twelve month period from 01/09/10-31/08/11. Hypovitaminosis was defined by two thresholds for 25(OH)D concentrations: deficiency < 30nmol/L and insufficiency 30-79 nmol/L.Results:There were 211 TB cases of whom 75 (35%) had 25(OH)D levels measured. All 75 had hypovitaminosis D of whom 60 (80%) had 25(OH)D deficiency and 15 (20%) were insufficient in 25(OH)D.There were 323 controls, 87 of whom were taking supplements and so were excluded. Of the remaining 236 controls, 6.8 % were vitamin D replete (vs. 0 % in TB cases), 52.1 % had vitamin D deficiency (vs. 80% in TB cases) and 41.1 % were vitamin D insufficient (vs. 20% in TB cases). Mean 25(OH)D levels were significantly lower in the study group as compared to the control group (18.11 nmol/L vs 34.98 nmol/L, p <0.0001)Conclusions:The prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in both the study as well as the control groups is alarmingly high but importantly 100% of TB cases who had 25(OH)D levels checked were either deficient or insufficient. We hypothesize that this may be a unique finding in our ethnically-diverse population and thus may have implications for nutritional supplementation offered to active TB patients.