Over the past decade, interest has grown in the role of vitamin D in many non
skeletal medical conditions. The immunemodulatory properties of vitamin D may
influence susceptibility to infection. This cross sectional study aimed to study the
association between vitamin D level and recurrent acute diarrhea. The study was
conducted on 80 simple randomly selected children, aged from 4 to 12 years from
November 2013 to May 2014, sixty patients were suffering from recurrent acut
diarrhea and twenty were healthy, age and sex matched children taken as a control
group. All children were subjected to complete history taking, clinical examination
and Laboratory investigations in the form of hemoglobin level, stool analysis and
estimation of the serum level of vitamin D by ELISA. There was highly significant
decrease in vitamin D levels in patients group than control group. In patients with
recurrent acute diarrhea, vitamin D deficiency was found in 58%, insufficient in 20
% and sufficient in 22%. Vitamin D deficiency was associated with increased rate
of diarrheal attacks, vomiting and abdominal pain. Hemoglobin level was
decreased below normal in 26.7% of children with recurrent diarrhea; most of them
were vitamin D deficient children. Stool examination in children with recurrent
diarrhea detected Entameba histolytica in 8.3%, Giardia lamblia in 13%, Ascaris
lumbricoides in 1.7% and Ancylostoma duodenal in 1.7%, all parasites were
detected in vitamin D deficient children, except E. histolytica detected also in
vitamin D sufficient child. Recurrent acute diarrhea was associated with decreased
serum level of vitamin D in preschool and school-age children. Vitamin D
deficiency was associated with increased number of diarrheal attacks and Giardia
lambliaparasitic infection. |
