Investigating Vitamin D Serum Levels in Children with Congenital Heart Disease Compared with the Healthy Control Group

Background Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that has an important function in bone metabolism, muscle activity, nervous system, and immunity. In this study, we compared the vitamin D level of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) with healthy control. Materials and Methods This case-control study was conducted on 56 children with CHD diagnosed with echocardiography and 56 healthy children with no sign of CHD matched for age, sex, and use of vitamin D supplementation. Participants were gathered from those who referred to the cardiac clinic of Vali-e-Asr hospital, Birjand, Iran, in 2017. Two ml of the blood sample was taken from all participants and serum vitamin D was assessed using Roche Diagnostic kit (Germany). The data analysis was achieved using SPSS software version 16 with descriptive statistics and Chi-square test. Results The median age of participants was 7 months (ranged1-24). The mean vitamin D serum level of all participants was 32.19 ng/ml (SD=28.79) (normal > 20). The level of vitamin D in the case and control group was 16.82 ng/ml (29.85-9.38), and 34.95 ng/ml (46.60-26.52), respectively; and this difference was significant (P<0.05). In the CHD patients group, 15 patients had vitamin D deficiency and 5 patients had high vitamin D levels. In the healthy patients’ group, these numbers were 2 and 21, respectively. Conclusion Based on the results, children with CHD had significantly lower levels of vitamin D; therefore, we suggest more vitamin D supplement be used for patients with CHD than healthy children.