Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2011) 26 P511

1Department of Molecular and Clinical Endocrinology and Oncology Federico II University, Napoli, Italy; 2Department of Neurological Sciences Federico II University, Napoli, Italy.


To evaluate vitamin D levels in relapsing remitting (RR) and secondary progressive (SP) courses of multiple sclerosis (MS) and to evaluate correlations between vitamin D and clinical features of disease progression, in a southern Italy population. 63 (41 RR and 22 SP) ‘naive’ MS patients (47 females, 16 males aged 37.7±5.7 years) and 63 healthy controls were enrolled. Patients were assessed through clinical, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and laboratory investigations. A secondary progression index was calculated for SP patients at baseline. Serum 25 hydroxy vitamin D (25OHD) was measured on serum obtained before immunomodulator therapy. Serum 25 OHD vitamin D was lower in patients than in controls (18.8±9.9 vs 29.2±12.4 ng/ml, P<0.001). Vitamin D deficiency (<10 ng/ml) was observed in 28.6%, vitamin D insufficiency (10–30 ng/ml) in 57.1% and normal value of vitamin D (30–100 ng/ml) in 14.3% of MS patients. No difference in 25 OHD vitamin D was found between two MS patients groups (19.4±9.0 vs 17.7±11.6 ng/ml P=NS). Secondary progression index was not related to 25 OHD vitamin D levels. The hypothesis that adequate vitamin D nutrition can contribute to the prevention of MS was proposed to explain the geographical distribution of MS. There are many concerns regarding the role of vitamin D in MS pathogenesis and disability accumulation and its relation with sun exposure. We found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency both in RR and SP patients respect to normal controls, without a high disability preventing normal outdoor activity and not related to secondary progression index, before therapy onset. If vitamin D deficiency could have a pathogenetic role in this autoimmune disease is not yet clear and needs further study.

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