BACKGROUND It has been shown that many women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) insufficient. Both statin treatment and vitamin D supplementation have been shown to improve biochemical hyperandrogenemia, insulin resistance, and markers of inflammation in patients with PCOS, raising the possibility that some of the statin effects are mediated through vitamin D....

Vitamin D is well known for its role in promoting skeletal health. Vitamin D status is determined conventionally by circulating 25-dihydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) concentration. There is evidence indicating that circulating 25OHD concentration is affected by variation in Gc, the gene encoding the vitamin D binding protein (DBP). The composite genotype of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs7041 a...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Darker skin pigmentation and aging are known factors influencing the body's ability to synthesize adequate amounts of vitamin D (25OHD). The objective of this study is to determine the 25OHD insufficiency in elderly African American females of low socioeconomic status (SES) in a southern latitude during springtime sun exposure. METHODS Patients >or= 70 years old who ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the changes produced in serum 25OHD and iPTH levels after 600,000 IU of injection cholecalciferol in volunteers. STUDY DESIGN Interventional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Section of Chemical Pathology, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from June 2009 - June 2010. METHODOLOGY Volunteers of either gender aged 18-...

BACKGROUND Observational studies support a possible association between decreased vitamin D levels and risk of coronary artery disease (CAD); however, it remains unclear whether this relationship is causal. We aimed to evaluate whether genetically lowered vitamin D levels influence the risk of CAD using a Mendelian randomization approach. METHODS AND RESULTS In this 2-stage Mendelian randomiz...

Background: Vitamin D status in pregnancy and offspring bone health effects are well established, yet limited knowledge exists on the effect of maternal vitamin D status on offspring size/adiposity. This study examines the association of early (13 weeks), late (28 weeks) pregnancy and neonatal (umbilical) 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) on offspring size/adiposity. Methods: This analysis included m...

Seasonal variation in circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels related to seasonal and inter-day fluctuation in sunlight ultraviolet irradiation, may lead to misjudgments concerning 25OHD status in individual workers around threshold levels. Here, to examine seasonal and inter-day variations in plasma 25OHD, we conducted a longitudinal study involving indoor daytime workers. Subjects were...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between vitamin D deficiency and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in pregnant Chinese women. METHODS A nested case-control study was conducted. Clinical and biochemical data were analyzed for 200 subjects with GDM and 200 subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT). RESULTS The median (interquartile range) serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD...

BACKGROUND Vitamin D deficiency is common among palliative cancer patients and has been connected to an increased risk for pain, depressions and infections. Therefore we wanted to test the hypothesis that low 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels are associated with higher opioid dose, higher infectious burden and impaired quality of life in palliative cancer patients. The secondary aim was to inv...

BACKGROUND The recent development of nonradioactive automated assays for serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) has made measurement of these two hormones possible in many laboratories. In this study, we compared two new assays for PTH and 25OHD adapted on an automated analyzer, the LIAISON, with two manual immunoassays used worldwide. METHODS We studied 228 osteoporo...