ESPE Abstracts

Background: Vitamin D deficiency has a high prevalence in children. It is produced by the skin from exposure to sunlight but its synthesis is influenced by many external and internal factors.

Objective and hypotheses: The study aims to evaluate vitamin D in children with different pathology and highlights the influencing factors of it.

Method: We evaluate 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in 84 patients, sex ratio 1.15:1, aged between 3 month and 17.9 years old, using high-performance liquid chromatography method. 39 patients had a genetic disease. We divided the tested period in two parts according with the sun exposure: the group tested from March to August, 55 samples, compared with the group tested from September to February, 29 samples. We evaluated the differences of vitamin D levels and we correlated it with the season and medical condition.

Results: We diagnosticated 42 patients, with vitamin D deficit, 19 with genetic disease 74.35% of total belonged the first group. The mean for the first group was 30±17.29 with 56.36% affected patients and 40.75±24.29 with 37.93% for the second group. The smaller value was 4.9 μg/l, a 4.6 years old boy from the second group. The higher value was 105 μg/l recorded in the second group also in a boy with an aggressive prophylactic treatment. 33.33% of the total number of girls and 64.44% of boys had vitamin D deficit. 53.84% of patients with genetic disease had low level of vitamin D.

Conclusion: The recorded values were smaller for the hot season even if the sun exposure is the most important stimulant factor for vitamin D synthesis. Patients with genetic disorders had a higher prevalence of vitamin D deficit, their special condition can decrease the sun exposure. The low levels of vitamin D were correlated with clinical symptoms in genetically patients.