MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Karin Amrein, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor Department of Internal Medicine
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism
Medical University of Graz
8036 Graz, Austria
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Amrein: This is the first large clinical trial on vitamin D in critical care. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, a population of mixed adult ICU patients with vitamin D deficiency (defined as 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] level ≤ 20ng/ml) was assigned to receive either vitamin D
3 or placebo. We used a high loading dose of vitamin D
3 followed by monthly maintenance doses of 90,000 IU for a total of 5 months. Because of a substantially increased risk for skeletal complications below 12ng/ml of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, we used this threshold for a predefined subgroup analysis.
Overall, high-dose
vitamin D3 compared with placebo did not reduce hospital length of stay (primary endpoint), intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, hospital mortality, or 6 month-mortality
(more…)