Is vitamin D deficiency associated with development of Acinetobacter baumannii infections in critically ill patients?
Journal of Critical Care, Volume 28, Issue 5, October 2013, Pages 735–740
Melda Türkoğlu, MD meldaturkoglu at yahoo.com.tr, Gülbin Aygencel, Murat Dizbay, Ayşe Fitnat Tuncel,
Burcu Arslan Candır, Yelda Deligöz Bildacı, Hatice Paşaoğlu
Medical Intensive Care Unit, Gazi University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
Purpose: A growing number of evidence demonstrates deficiency of vitamin D in critically ill patients. We aimed to evaluate the vitamin D status of our critically ill patients and its relevance to infections in these patients.
Material and Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study in 201 critically ill patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit of Gazi University Hospital between October 2009 through March 2011.
Results: Sixty-nine percent of the patients were found to be vitamin D deficient. Infection rate was higher in the deficient group, though without statistical significance (P = .117). Infections with Acinetobacter baumannii was significantly more frequent in patients with Vitamin D deficiency (25% vs 10%, P = .012). The median level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels was 11.8 [6.3-17.2] ng/mL and 15.7 [8.1-28.9] ng/mL in patients with and without A baumannii infections respectively (P = .024). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency (P = .042) and invasive mechanical ventilation (P = .001) were the 2 independent risk factors in the development of A baumannii infections, in addition.
Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency is common in critically ill patients.
Even though there was no statistical difference between vitamin D deficient and sufficient patients regarding development of infections in general, A baumannii infections were significantly more frequent in the deficient group.
Vitamin D deficiency was found as one of the independent risk factors for A baumannii infections.
Further multicenter studies with a larger sample size are required to validate our data.
Note: Wikipedia indicates that Acinetobacter baumannii is also spreading to civilian hospitals in the US and elsewhere.
Acinetobacter baumannii is enveloped, and Vitamin D is known to deal with enveloped virus
Also know as Iraqibacter
YES, Acinetobacter baumannii is contagious.
Acinetobacter baumannii lives for up to 90 days on both wet and dry surfaces.
Acinetobacter baumannii is thought to be carried in healthy persons much like MRSA without causing infection.
for more information contact junglem at yahoo.com
See also Vitamin D Life
- MRSA inpatient cost 2X higher if less than 20 ng vitamin D – June 2011
- Vitamin D reduces sepsis
- ICU surgical patients with low vitamin D stayed longer and had more sepsis – Dec 2011
- Vitamin D's potential to reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections – May 2012
- 3X more likely to die within 3 months of being in ICU for 2 days if less than 20 ng vitamin D – Sept 2013