Assessment of serum vitamin D levels in surgical adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients

Abstract

Background: The mechanism behind idiopathic scoliosis and its progression is not fully understood. Vitamin D insufficiency is known to play a role in the progression and/or occurrence of a variety of bone diseases. In this study, we aimed to estimate the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency among patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Additionally, we aimed to calculate the differences in serum vitamin D levels, Cobb angles, spinal bone mass densities, and serum alkaline phosphatase levels between the sexes in the sample and to assess the possibility of a correlation between any of these factors. Methods: Demographic details, vitamin D levels, Cobb angle, spinal bone mass density, and alkaline phosphatase were collected from the records of 67 patients who were eligible for corrective surgery. These values were compared to normal levels and between the sexes within the study. Results: Of the 67 patients, 54 (80.6%) were female. The mean serum vitamin D level was 37.86 ± 26 nmol/L, and levels below normal were found in 92.5% of the patients. Statistical analysis showed significant differences (p = 0.002) in serum alkaline phosphatase levels between the sexes. No correlation was found between vitamin D levels and the Cobb angles, spinal and bilateral femoral neck bone mass densities, and serum alkaline phosphatase levels. Conclusions: Most adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients had insufficient serum vitamin D levels and also suffered from low bone mineral density at an early age.

Risk factors associated with low bone mineral density in children with idiopathic scoliosis: a scoping review

“…After removing 419 duplicated and 1019 unrelated studies, we finally included 56. There were 30 studies [6, on genetic risk factors related to low BMD in children with IS, eight studies on endocrine risk factors [57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64], and 18 studies [5,[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81] on lifestyle-related risk factors. A total of 10,768 participants with IS were included in the 56 included studies, consisting of 295 male patients with IS in 14 studies [30,31,33,38,40,43,44,48,51,56,[63][64][65][66].…”

Vitamin D and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, should we stop the hype? A cross-sectional observational prospective study based on a geometric morphometrics approach

“…Goździalska et al [ 13 ] (15 and 18.04 ng/mL in pre- and post-menarche), Balioglu et al [ 18 ] (17.13 ng/mL) and Alsiddiky et al [ 15 ] (10.92 ng/mL) had found vitamin D levels that are expressions of deficiency in patients with AIS. Comparing our mean vitamin D values with the ones reported in the literature, we have found slightly higher mean levels, although they still fall into the insufficiency group (23.17 ng/mL).…”

“…All the previous studies have found a mean vitamin D value below the reference for normality (30 ng/mL), being the level of vitamin D specially lower in premenarcheal girls [ 13 , 25 ]. In other study run on surgical AIS patients, only a 7.5% of the sample showed a vitamin D level above the reference value [ 15 ]. However, the prevalence of hypovitaminosis among non-scoliotic children and adolescents is also high [ 26 ] and previous studies about the relation of vitamin D and AIS based their conclusions of significant differences between AIS and control groups [ 13 , 18 ].…”

What is New in Pediatric Orthopaedic: Basic Science

“…It is reported that 19% of AIS patients undergoing surgery have low spinal BMD and low serum vitamin D levels; however, no correlation between these metabolic parameters and major curve magnitude has been found. 1 Another analysis found an increased risk for AIS associated with a single nucleotide polymorphism in the vitamin D receptor. 2 Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms also have been linked to decreased bone marrow density in patients.…”