Effect of vitamin D therapy on endothelial function in ischemic heart disease female patients with vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency: A primary report

Background: vitamin d deficiency is associated with vascular endothelial dysfunction. we evaluated endothelial function in ischemic heart disease (ihd) patients with vitamin d deficiency or insufficiency before and after vitamin d therapy. methods: an uncontrolled before-after study was conducted in isfahan, iran on consecutive sample of female ihd patients who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention in the preceding 6 months and/or referred with chronic stable angina. forty patients with vitamin d deficiency or insufficiency (serum 25-hydroxy vitamin d < 20 or 20-30 ng/ml, respectively) were included and received two intramuscular injections of 300,000 iu cholecalciferol with 1 month interval. endothelial function, assessed by measuring flow-mediated dilatation (fmd), and serum 25-hydroxy vitamin d level were measured at baseline and 1 month after the second dose of cholecalciferol. results: a total of 30 patients completed the study, age = 59.4 ± 8.7 years; serum 25-hydroxy vitamin d = 19.0 ± 6.5 ng/ml. after treatment, serum 25-hydroxy vitamin d was reached to > 30 ng/ml in all patients. brachial artery diameter (mm) after ischemia increased significantly, statistically but not clinically (4.55 ± 0.37 to 4.67 ± 0.38, p < 0.001). furthermore, fmd (%) was increased from 1.96 ± 1.65 to 4.65 ± 1.27 (p < 0.001). the amount of change in fmd was not significantly correlated with serum 25-hydroxy vitamin d (r = 0.038, p = 0.858). conclusion: endothelial function was improved after vitamin d therapy in ihd patients with low serum vitamin d. controlled studies with larger sample size are required to confirm if vitamin d therapy has effects on endothelial function.