PREVALENCE OF VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY AMONG PATIENTS AFTER KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION IN LATVIA

Nutritional vitamin d deficiency is an increasingly recognised condition in chronic kidney diseasepatients and in patients after kidney transplantation. the main goal of the present study was toestimate the prevalence of hypovitaminosis d in the cohort of kidney grafted patients in latviaand to determine the relationships between vitamin d level and kidney graft function, time sincetransplantation, gender, use of particular immunosuppressive medications, and some biochemicalparameters. we measured the 25(oh)d serum level in 165 patients. mean age of patients was49.7 years (range: 11–80). median time after transplantation was 6.5 years (range 0.8–16.4years). mean 25(oh)d level for all cohort was 22.71 ± 7.06 ng/ml; only 30/165 (18%) of patientswere vitamin d sufficient. 71/165 (43%) patients showed insufficient 25(oh)d level, 62/165 (38%)patients were mildly vitamin d deficient, and 2/165 (1%) were severely vitamin d deficient. serumcreatinine level was negatively correlated with 25(oh)d (r = –0.21; p < 0.01). we also observedan inverse correlation between ipth and 25(oh) d (r = –0.35, p < 0.0001) and between total alkalinephosphatase and 25(oh) d (r = –0.20, p < 0.01). this study confirmed the almost universalprevalence of vitamin d insufficiency among kidney graft recipients and emphasizedimportance of regular evaluation and proper supplementation of vitamin d in this population.