Antara Sen, Kallol Bhattacharjee, Giridhari Kar, Chandra Prakash Thakur
BACKGROUND Vitamin D deficiency has been found to have an inverse relationship with the occurrence of type-2 diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to assess serum vitamin D level in patients with type 2 DM and correlate its finding with healthy controls, and to ascertain the relationship between low 25(OH) vitamin D levels and the marker of glycemic control, glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). MATERIALS AND METHODS Total 100 patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus were selected as cases with an equal number of non-diabetic persons without chronic renal failure, coronary artery disease, chronic liver disease, patients not on calcium and vitamin D supplementation were taken as controls. Serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D3 level was estimated and compared with fasting blood glucose and glycosylated HbA1C in both the cases and controls. RESULTS The prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency was significantly higher among diabetic patients than among the controls. Patients with poor glycemic control had a higher prevalence of low vitamin D status than those with good glycemic control (HbA1c ≤ 7%). Mean vitamin D levels was significantly lower in obese than the cases with normal BMI and in patients with longer duration of diabetes. CONCLUSION A low vitamin D status is present in more than two thirds of patients with DM type 2, more so amongst diabetics with poor glycemic control, high BMI and those with longer diabetes durations.
