Vitamin D status and its association with season, hospital and sepsis mortality in critical illness.
Crit Care. 2014 Mar 24;18(2):R47. doi: 10.1186/cc13790.
Amrein K, Zajic P, Schnedl C, Waltensdorfer A, Fruhwald S, Holl A, Purkart T, Wünsch G, Valentin T, Grisold A, Stojakovic T, Amrein S, Pieber TR, Dobnig H.
All articles in both Mortality and Trauma/Surgery/ICU categories:
- Cardiac Surgery with low vitamin D increased delirium 1.4X, mortality 1.5X – May 2020
- Ventilator-associated pneumonia death rate cut in half by Vitamin D injection (300,000 IU) – RCT July 2017
- Low Vitamin D when entering ICU is deadly (acute kidney injury in this case) – Aug 2017
- Increased Hospital, Sepsis deaths if low vitamin D – March 2014
- Vitamin D and Glutamine reduced Trauma Center deaths by half – March 2017
- Half of Swiss emergency patients had low vitamin D: length of stay, mortality, etc. – May 2016
- Chance of dying in hospital cut in half by just 10 ng higher level of Vitamin D – April 2016
- ICU patients 30 percent less likely to die if have enough vitamin D – meta-analysis Nov 2016
- Hospital ICU added high dose vitamin D - malpractice lawsuit costs dropped from 26 million dollars to ZERO - Oct 2016
- Vitamin D and exercise after hip fracture surgery – far fewer deaths – July 2016
- Radio frequency ablation survival doubled with even modest levels of vitamin D – Feb 2016
- ICU death rate reduced 3X when a vitamin D injection changed the PTH – Nov 2015
- Risk of death within 90 days of ICU decreased by 16 percent for 1 nanogram extra vitamin D – June 2014
- ICU survival increased with vitamin D single 540K IU loading dose - JAMA Sept 2014
- Vitamin D intervention increased by 20 percent the survival of critically ill patients- RCT June 2014
- Hospital or ICU death about twice as likely if low vitamin D – March 2014
- 3X more likely to die within 3 months of being in ICU for 2 days if less than 20 ng vitamin D – Sept 2013
- Chance of dying within 1 month of entering hospital is 45 percent higher if low vitamin D – July 2013
- More sepsis deaths when active vitamin D (Calcitrol) was low – May 2013
- Off topic: Use of ICU in month before death has increased to almost 30 pcnt – Feb 2013
- Almost 6X more likely to die after coronary bypass if vitamin D deficient – Dec 2012
- Critically ill 70 percent more likely to die if vitamin D less than 15ng – Jan 2011
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Subset of Table 3
INTRODUCTION:
Vitamin D plays a key role in immune function. Deficiency may aggravate the incidence and outcome of infectious complications in critically ill patients. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and the correlation between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D) and hospital mortality, sepsis mortality and blood culture positivity.
METHODS:
In a single-center retrospective observational study at a tertiary care center in Graz, Austria, 655 surgical and nonsurgical critically ill patients with available 25(OH) D levels hospitalized between September 2008 and May 2010 were included. Cox regression analysis adjusted for age, gender, severity of illness, renal function and inflammatory status was performed. Vitamin D levels were categorized by month-specific tertiles (high, intermediate, low) to reflect seasonal variation of serum 25(OH) D levels.
RESULTS:
Overall, the majority of patients were vitamin D deficient (<20 ng/ml; 60.2%) or insufficient (≥20 and <30 ng/dl; 26.3%), with normal 25(OH) D levels (>30 ng/ml) present in only 13.6%. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and mean 25(OH) D levels was significantly different in winter compared to summer months (P <0.001). Hospital mortality was 20.6% (135 of 655 patients). Adjusted hospital mortality was significantly higher in patients in the low (hazard ratio (HR) 2.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.31 to 3.22) and intermediate (HR 1.92, 95% CI 1.21 to 3.06) compared to the high tertile. Sepsis was identified as cause of death in 20 of 135 deceased patients (14.8%). There was no significant association between 25(OH) D and C-reactive protein (CRP), leukocyte count or procalcitonin levels. In a subgroup analysis (n = 244), blood culture positivity rates did not differ between tertiles (23.1% versus 28.2% versus 17.1%, P = 0.361).
CONCLUSIONS:
Low 25(OH) D status is significantly associated with mortality in the critically ill. Intervention studies are needed to investigate the effect of vitamin D substitution on mortality and sepsis rates in this population.