Severe vitamin D deficiency increases risk of mortality in AKI patients: Study

A new study published in the International Journal of General Medicine found that a severe vitamin D deficit (<10 ng/mL) significantly raised the probability of 90-day death in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). A sharp drop in glomerular filtration rate (GFR), a rise in serum creatinine concentration (SCC), or decreased urine output (oliguria) are all indicators of acute kidney injury, which is a broad category of illnesses. Over 50% of critically sick patients worldwide suffer with this illness, which increases the risk of long-term problems, increases hospital stays, and raises mortality rates. Further, the development of end-stage renal disease and a steady reduction in kidney function are especially dangerous for AKI survivors. Despite its function in the metabolism of calcium and phosphate is well known, vitamin D has effects that go well beyond bone health.

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to negative results in a number of medical diseases. However, not enough research has been done on the precise relationship between vitamin D levels and mortality in individuals with acute kidney injury (AKI). Investigating the relationship between blood vitamin D levels and mortality risk in critically ill patients with an AKI diagnosis was the goal of this investigation.

A total of 259 adult AKI patients who were hospitalized to the intensive care unit (ICU) at Henan University of Chinese Medicine's Fifth Clinical Medical College (Zhengzhou People's Hospital) between July 2021 and June 2023 were retrospectively recruited for this study. They were divided into four groups according to their 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) levels as severe deficiency (less than 10 ng/mL), deficiency (10–20 ng/mL), insufficiency (20–30 ng/mL), and sufficiency (more than 30 ng/mL). After adjusting for possible confounders, the effect of vitamin D concentrations on the 90-day all-cause mortality risk was examined using multivariate survival analysis utilizing Cox regression model.

The people with severe deficiency had the highest 90-day all-cause death rate (50.8%), followed by people with deficiency (35.0%), insufficiency (23.9%), and sufficiency (12.2%). While deficiency and insufficiency were not substantially linked to the risk of 90-day all-cause mortality, severe deficiency was independently linked to a greater risk of 90-day all-cause death when compared to sufficiency, according to multivariate Cox regression. Overall, severe vitamin D insufficiency (<10 ng/mL) considerably increases the risk of death in AKI patients, this highlights` the necessity for monitoring and perhaps augmenting vitamin D in this population.

Source:

Shen, B., Liu, B., Wang, Y., Wang, R., & Gu, D. (2024). Severe Vitamin D Deficiency is Associated with Mortality Risk in Critically Ill Patients with Acute Kidney Injury. In International Journal of General Medicine: Vol. Volume 17 (pp. 5153–5162). Informa UK Limited. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijgm.s477114