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Severe vitamin D deficiency is associated with emphysema progression in male patients with COPD
Changhwan Kim1, Yousang Ko2, Ji Ye Jung3
1Department of Internal Medicine, Jeju National University Hospital, Jeju National University School of Medicine, Jeju, South Korea; Clinical Research Center for Chronic Obstructive Airway Diseases, Seoul, South Korea.
Background:
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have an increased risk of vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D levels also correlate with lung function in patients with COPD. However, there are few reports on vitamin D deficiency and emphysema severity in COPD. This study aimed to investigate the effects of plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) level on emphysema severity in male COPD patients.
Methods:
A total of 151 male subjects were selected from the Korean Obstructive Lung Disease (KOLD) cohort. Subjects were subdivided into four subgroups according to their baseline plasma 25-OHD level: sufficiency (≥20 ng/ml), mild deficiency (15-20 ng/ml), moderate deficiency (10-15 ng/ml), and severe deficiency (<10 ng/ml).
Results:
Baseline computed tomography (CT) emphysema indices revealed significant differences among the subgroups (p = 0.034). A statistically significant difference was also observed among the subgroups regarding change in the CT emphysema index over 3 years (p = 0.047). The annual increase in emphysema index was more prominent in the severe deficiency group (1.34% per year) than in the other groups (0.41% per year) (p = 0.003).
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that CT emphysema indices were different among the four subgroups and supports that severe vitamin D deficiency is associated with rapid progression of emphysema in male patients with COPD.
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