Abstract
Recent studies expand the concept of the role of Vitamin D /Vit D/ in the body homeostasis.It has a complex effect on the biology of lung cells in response to inflammation, immunity, recovery and other processes.
Low VitD levels are associated with increasing incidence of asthma both in children and adults in the last decades of life.
The aim of this study was to establish a link between VitD levels and bronchial obstruction in children.
Using chromatography, Vit D levels were investigated in 55 children aged 7 months to 12 years, 32 males and 25 females, 44 with symtoms of bronchial obstruction and 11 with other respiratory diseases. In 45 of them total serum IgE were studied for the establishment of atopy.
In 26 children /47,3%/ VitD deficiency was established with values below 20 ng/ml, in 23 /41,8%/ insufficiency with values between 20 and 30 ng/ml and in only 6 children /10,9%/ VitD values were normal or above 30 ng/ml. In 15 children /33,3%/ elevated total IgE levels were established, all of them with bronchial obstruction.
There was no significant difference in Vit D levels in the groups with and without bronchial obstruction, with and without atopy.
There is a relationship between low levels of Vit D and early manifestation of episodes of bronchial obstruction/all children with bronchial obstruction up to 6 months of age/.
This also applies to the frequency of exacerbations.100% of children with 3 to 6 or more than 6 attacks show VitD deficiency or insufficiency.
These results allow the assumption that low levels of Vit D predispose more often to respiratory infections, which, in combination with atopy, may lead more frequently to expression of bronchial obstruction in children /asthma or bronchiolitis /.
- © 2014 ERS
