Vitamin D Levels Are Reduced at the Time of Hospital Admission in Sicilian SARS-CoV-2-Positive Patients
Agostino Gaudio, Andrea Ruben Murabito, Antonella Agodi, Arturo Montineri, Pietro Castellino
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, doi:10.3390/ijerph18073491
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a worldwide healthcare challenge that needs an efficient response. Unfortunately, to date there is no highly effective treatment, so a deep understanding of COVID-19 risk factors could be an important step in treating the disease. Vitamin D affects the immune system in many different ways, and other authors already found that COVID-19 patients have low levels of vitamin D. In our retrospective study, we evaluated the vitamin D status at the time of hospital admission in 50 COVID-19 patients in Sicily, which is the southernmost region of Italy, and compared them with 100 control subjects matched for age and sex. Our data showed markedly low levels of vitamin D in patients with a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but no association was found with inflammation markers or clinical severity. Vitamin D levels were reduced at the time of hospital admission in Sicilian SARS-CoV-2-positive patients, but it is not clear whether this condition has an impact on the clinical course of COVID-19.
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, A.G. and A.R.M.; methodology, A.A.; formal analysis, A.A.; investigation, A.R.M. and A.M.; resources, P.C.; data curation, A.M.; writing-original draft preparation, A.G. and A.R.M.; writing-review and editing, A.G. and P.C.; funding acquisition, P.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Funding: This study was partially funded by the 2020/2022 Research Plan 'Piaceri' of the University of Catania -line 2.
Institutional Review Board Statement: The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Policlinico "G. Rodolico-San Marco" Catania (approval number 283 of 23 December, 2020).
Informed
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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