Evaluation of the relationship of serum vitamin D levels in COVID-19 patients with clinical course and prognosis.

This study reports a relationship between vitamin D levels and outcomes on Turkish patients, but few conclusions can be drawn as no intervention took place.

• Patients infected with COVID-19 had a significantly lower level of vitamin D than the healthy controls.
• The 20 patients who developed macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) a severe clinical manifestation of respiratory failure, had a lower level of vitamin D compared to 68 patients who did not develop this syndrome.
• Vitamin D levels of the patients (n= 8) who passed away due to COVID-19, were statistically significantly lower compared to those who survivied.

108 patients who were admitted to the emergency department of Ataturk University and Erzurum Regional Education Research Hospital with complaints of primarily fever, cough, shortness of breath, weakness, sudden taste and smell, who had returned from a visit abroad in the last 14 days and who had been in contact with suspected COVID-19 patient, were included in the study. 20 control patients were also included.

This was a single center study, no intervention took place, the vitamin D levels of study subjects may have been influenced by many factors, and there was no control for age and co-morbidities.

Due to COVID-19, pandemic, long-running quarantines caused insufficient use of sunlight and worsening of vitamin D deficiency. We wanted to draw attention again with our study to vitamin D which can be responsible for the heavy clinical course of COVID-19 and whose replacement is easy to apply.

After admission to the clinic, biochemical parameters, clotting parameters, ferritin, D-Dimer, troponin-l, CRP, and arterial blood gas parameters, hematological parameters, liver and kidney function tests were assessed and repeated daily.

Kerget B, Kerget F, Kızıltunç A, Koçak AO, Araz Ö, Yılmazel Uçar E, Akgün M. Evaluation of the relationship of serum vitamin D levels in COVID-19 patients with clinical course and prognosis. Tuberk Toraks. 2020 Sep;68(3):227-235. English. doi: 10.5578/tt.70027.