Vitamin D Deficiency Raises Death Risk In Pneumonia Patients

Scientists have found that adult patients admitted to the hospital with pneumonia are more likely to die if they have Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is known to be involved in the innate immune response to infection.

The team of researchers at Waikato Hospital and the Universities of Waikato and Otago, measured vitamin D in the blood samples of 112 adult patients admitted with community acquired pneumonia during the winter at the only acute-care hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand.

The researchers found that Vitamin D deficiency was associated with higher mortality within the first 30 days after hospital admission for pneumonia.

The association between vitamin D deficiency was not explained by patient age, sex, comorbidities, the severity of the systemic inflammatory response, or other known prognostic factors.

The researchers concluded that, "improved understanding of Vitamin D and its role in immunity may lead to better ways to prevent and/or treat pneumonia."

The study was published in the journal Respirology.

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Source-ANI