Serum vitamin D deficiency in subjects with severe acquired brain injury and relationship with functional severity

ABSTRACT

Background: Vitamin D may be important for the development and function of the nervous system. Low serum vitamin D levels have been detected in several neurological diseases.

Objective: To ascertain the relationship between 25(OH)D serum level and disability in subjects with severe acquired brain injury (sABI).

Design: Prospective cross-sectional study

Methods: Consecutive subjects with sABI admitted to neuro-rehabilitation were enrolled. A sample of subjects from the neurological ward was considered the control group. Vitamin D serum levels and blood parameters were measured at admission. Disability Rating Scale (DRS), Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS), and Level of Cognitive Functioning (LCF) were used in assessing disability.

Results: A total of 104 subjects (34 F, 70 M; mean age 53.9 ± 15.2 years) were enrolled: 54 (19 F, 35 M) with sABI and 50 (15 F, 35 M) subjects as control group. Deficient mean serum levels of vitamin D (19.2 ± 9.4 ng/mL) were detected in the subjects with sABI and a significant inverse correlation between vitamin D serum levels and DRS score was detected (p = 0.04).

Conclusion: Subjects with sABI showed vitamin D deficiency that might correlate to disability severity. The reason is unclear and might represent a secondary phenomenon resulting from the inflammatory process.

KEYWORDS:

• Acquired brain injury
• vitamin D
• disability

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest

Authors state that no competing financial or conflict of interests exists

Declarations

Ethical Approval and Consent to participate:

The study was approved by the institutional ethics (Comitato etico presso IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza on 9-18-2016, ICF V.10_18 ago 16)

Additional information

Funding

The paper is a part of project investigating the functional recovery of patients with critical illnesses that was funded by research grant n. [RC1702MF23] from the Italian Research Ministry.

Notes on contributors

D. Intiso

D. Intiso Domenico Intiso conceived, designed the study, and draft the paper; Domenico Intiso and Filomena Di Rienzo performed clinical evaluation and collected and organised the data. Andrea Fontana and Massimiliano Copetti performed statistical analyses. All authors read, critically reviewed, and approved the final manuscript.