الفهرس 
Bronchial AsthmaOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
is the most common chronic disease among children
where almost 90% of children are diagnosed by the age of 6 years.
Asthma prevalence has been increasing in both developed as well as
developing countries.
Vitamin D deficiency is suggested to be a risk factor for asthma
and associated with increased incidence of asthma symptoms. Vitamin D
deficiency may be due to decreased maternal intake during pregnancy,
poor oral supplementation of vitamin D during childhood and restricted
exposure to sunshine.
Many studies suggest that vitamin D may play a role in the
pathogenesis of asthma, it has a potent immunomodulatory effect acting
on the cells of the innate immunity. Vitamin D reduce the risk of
respiratory viral infections which are important initiators of asthma
exacerbations. Also it potentiates the anti-inflammatory action of steroids
which is considered to be the most effective controller in asthma.
The aim of the present study was to study the relationship between
serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and severity of bronchial asthma in a sample
of Egyptian asthmatic children.
This study was conducted on 60 asthmatic children (group 1) who
were recruited from Pediatric Chest Clinic, Children’s Hospital, Faculty
of Medicine, Ain Shams University . Their ages ranged from 6- 12 years
with a mean age of 8.6+ 2.1 years.
Sixty healthy children (group 2) were collected from the outpatient
clinic as a control group. They were selected to be age and sex matched
for group 1. The studied asthmatic children were subjected to full medical
history, thorough clinical examination lying stress on chest examination.
Also laboratory investigations including CBC, serum calcium,
phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and serum 25(OH)-vitamin D were
done for both cases and controls.
Analysis of the results of the present study showed that the patients
were 39 (65%) males and 21 (35%) females with male to female ratio of
1.9:1. BMI centiles were significantly higher in patients than controls.
height was significantly lower in patients than controls.
The mean value of vitamin D was significantly lower in asthmatics
than controls. The mean value of alkaline phosphatase was significantly
higher in asthmatic children than controls. The mean value of blood
eosinophil count was significantly higher in asthmatic children than
controls. The mean value of vitamin D decreased significantly with
increasing asthma severity among patients groups. The mean value of
vitamin D was significantly lower in patients using inhaled corticosteroids.
In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that
asthmatic children had lower levels of serum vitamin D than healthy
group. Lower levels of vitamin D were associated with higher asthma
severity and lower levels of vitamin D were reported in combined
allergies.