Bronchial asthma and hypovitaminosis D in Saudi children

BACKGROUND: Asthma, a common lung disease in children, is caused by excessive immune responses to environmental antigens. OBJECTIVE: Given the immuno-modulatory properties of vitamin D, the aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between vitamin D levels and markers of asthma severity. METHODS: This was investigated in a 70 Saudi children with and without asthma and were recruited from the King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, over the period of 11 months (May 2011-April 2012). Childhood asthma control test instrument was employed to assess the level of asthma control among asthmatic patients. Anthropometric measurements were taken and interviewer-administrated questionnaire was completed for all study participants. Pulmonary function test was performed by recording changes in the peak expiratory flow. Venous blood samples were withdrawn for measurements of vitamin D, bone profile, cytokines profile (interleukin-10, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, platelets derived growth factor), and atopy markers (IgE and eosinophil count). RESULTS: Hypovitaminosis D is highly prevalent among asthmatic children with highly significant increase in several markers of allergy and asthma severity as compared with healthy control children. Significant correlations between several inflammatory and immunological markers and vitamin D levels were also found. Finally, lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were associated with a higher asthma prevalence in multivariable analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that hypovitaminosis D is highly prevalent in the whole population in addition to a highly significant increase in several markers of allergy and asthma severity among asthmatic children as compared with healthy control children.