الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract is the most common chronic disease among children where almost 90% of children are diagnosed by the age of 6 years. Asthma prevalence has been increasing in both developed as well as developing countries. Vitamin D deficiency is suggested to be a risk factor for asthma and associated with increased incidence of asthma symptoms. Vitamin D deficiency may be due to decreased maternal intake during pregnancy, poor oral supplementation of vitamin D during childhood and restricted exposure to sunshine. Many studies suggest that vitamin D may play a role in the pathogenesis of asthma, it has a potent immunomodulatory effect acting on the cells of the innate immunity. Vitamin D reduce the risk of respiratory viral infections which are important initiators of asthma exacerbations. Also it potentiates the anti-inflammatory action of steroids which is considered to be the most effective controller in asthma. The aim of the present study was to study the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and severity of bronchial asthma in a sample of Egyptian asthmatic children. This study was conducted on 60 asthmatic children (group 1) who were recruited from Pediatric Chest Clinic, Children’s Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University . Their ages ranged from 6- 12 years with a mean age of 8.6+ 2.1 years. Sixty healthy children (group 2) were collected from the outpatient clinic as a control group. They were selected to be age and sex matched for group 1. The studied asthmatic children were subjected to full medical history, thorough clinical examination lying stress on chest examination. Also laboratory investigations including CBC, serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and serum 25(OH)-vitamin D were done for both cases and controls. Analysis of the results of the present study showed that the patients were 39 (65%) males and 21 (35%) females with male to female ratio of 1.9:1. BMI centiles were significantly higher in patients than controls. height was significantly lower in patients than controls. The mean value of vitamin D was significantly lower in asthmatics than controls. The mean value of alkaline phosphatase was significantly higher in asthmatic children than controls. The mean value of blood eosinophil count was significantly higher in asthmatic children than controls. The mean value of vitamin D decreased significantly with increasing asthma severity among patients groups. The mean value of vitamin D was significantly lower in patients using inhaled corticosteroids. In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that asthmatic children had lower levels of serum vitamin D than healthy group. Lower levels of vitamin D were associated with higher asthma severity and lower levels of vitamin D were reported in combined allergies. |