Relationship of vitamin D deficiency to clinical outcomes in critically ill patients

Despite the numerous disease conditions associated with vitamin D deficiency in the general population, the relationship of this deficiency to outcome in critically ill patients remains unclear. The objective of this study is to determine the burden of vitamin D deficiency in intensive care unit (ICU) patients and determine if it is associated with poor patient outcomes.

The authors conducted an analysis of samples collected from a prospective study of 196 patients admitted to a medical/surgical ICU in a tertiary care hospital. They measured serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D at admission and up to 10 days following admission and followed patients prospectively for 28-day outcomes.

Of analyzable patients, 50 (26%) were deficient (≤30 nmol/L) and 109 (56%) were insufficient (>30 and ≤60 nmol/L). Baseline 25(OH)D levels decreased significantly in all patients after 3 days in the ICU and remained significantly lower through 10 days (P < .001). 25(OH)D status was not significantly associated with 28-day all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 0.89; 95% confidence interval, [CI] 0.37-2.24). Higher levels of 25(OH)D were associated with a shorter time-to-alive ICU discharge (HR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.27-3.51). 25(OH)D-deficient patients showed a nonstatistically significant trend toward a higher infection rate (odds ratio [OR], 3.20; 95% CI, 0.784-13.07; P = .11) compared with patients with sufficient levels of 25(OH)D.

This study demonstrates significant decreases in vitamin D status over the duration of the patient's ICU stay. Low levels of vitamin D are associated with longer time to ICU discharge alive and a trend toward increased risk of ICU-acquired infection.