AIMS To determine the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D among healthy adolescent schoolgirls attending an inner city multiethnic girls' school. METHODS Fifty one (28%) of 182 girls (14 white, 37 non-white; median age 15.3 years, range 14.7-16.6) took part in the study. Biochemical parameters, dietary vitamin D intake, muscle function parameters, duration of daily sunlight exposure (SE), and per...

Calcium absorption by the intestine is necessary for bone mineralization. Much has been learned about this process and the role of vitamin D metabolites in gene transcription from animal studies, but the molecular mechanisms in humans are less well understood. We have used samples of normal human duodenal mucosa, obtained at endoscopy, to investigate the effects of the vitamin D metabolites, 1a...

BACKGROUND Although vitamin D deficiency has been documented as a frequent problem in studies of young adults, elderly persons, and children in other countries, there are limited data on the prevalence of this nutritional deficiency among healthy US teenagers. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in healthy adolescents presenting for primary care. DESIGN A cross-sec...

BACKGROUND Little is known of vitamin D concentration in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its relation with CSF acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, a marker of cholinergic function. METHODS A cross-sectional study of 52 consecutive patients under primary evaluation of cognitive impairment and 17 healthy controls. The patients had AD dementia or mild cognitive impair...

Abstract Evaluation of digital ELISA using a high-resolution computational optical system for measurement total 25-hydroxyvitamin D Background Biomarkers such as vitamin occur at very low concentrations in blood, and sensitive detection methods are required order to measure them. It is difficult accurately low-concentration biomarkers conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) with...

OBJECTIVE To assess the serum level of 25 hydroxyvitamin D 25OHD among healthy Saudi Arabian women living in the eastern province. METHODS A cross-sectional randomized study was conducted between February 1st 2008 and May 31st 2008 at the King Fahd University Hospital, Al-Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 200 Saudi women between 25-35 years group 1 and women of > or =50 years group 2. Clinic...

Vitamin D has been recognized for its immune-modulating properties. We have previously found that levels of 25OHD, and cytokines including IL5, IFNα2, and TNFα, are also associated with estrogen receptor (ER) negative breast cancer in younger women. Thus, we hypothesized that there may be interactions between vitamin D and the immune system in influencing breast cancer ER status, which was test...

Adult studies have reported associations of low 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) with dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease; however, there are scarce pediatric data regarding relationships between vitamin D status and specific lipid markers affecting cardiovascular risk. In this cross-sectional study of children evaluated at university-based pediatric endocrinology clinics, 178 patients meeting c...

Vitamin D deficiency is very common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among the different Italian regions and whether these variations are associated with different severity of the disease. The study includes 581 consecutive RA patients (464 women), not taking vitamin D supplements, from 22 Italian rheumatology c...

BACKGROUND Body mass index (BMI) and serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 (25OHD) concentrations are inversely related. As BMI contains only limited information regarding body fat distribution, we aimed to analyze the cross-sectional associations of abdominal visceral or subcutaneous adipose tissue, next to common adiposity measures, with the 25OHD concentration. METHODS Data were obtained from three ...