[Tuberculosis: plasma levels of vitamin D and its relation with infection and disease]

Vitamin D (vitD) is involved in the phosphor-calcium metabolism and bone pathology, but also in inflammatory and infectious processes such as tuberculosis. The present study evaluates the clinical and epidemiological aspects of active tuberculosis cases and latently infected contacts in whom plasma concentrations of vitD were obtained to determine whether the deficiency of vitD is a risk factor to develop active tuberculosis, especially the more severe forms.

Observational, retrospective study that included 86 tuberculosis patients and 80 contacts with latent infection in a 2-year period.

When comparing active tuberculosis cases with latent infection contacts, deficiency of vitD (vitD levels <10 ng/mL, odds ratio [OR]: 2.02, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04 to 3.93), male sex (OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 0.96 to 3.71) and non-white race (OR: 0.7, 95% CI: 0.34 to 1.42) were factors independently associated with the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Despite the limited number of subjects studied, there was a association between severe deficit of vitD and the presentation of tuberculosis.