Background

Vitamin D plays an important role in bone mineralisation,remodelling and maintainence and therefore its deficiency may be implicated in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis(OA).Vitamin D status was evaluated in patients with patients with knee and hip OA scheduled for joint replacement.The impact of anthropometric parameters such as gender,age and BMI on vit D was also examined.

Materials and Methods

We included 164 patients with knee or hip OA scheduled for joint replacement in this study.Serum levels of 25 hydroxyvitamin were measured in routine blood samples taken from the patients at their pre admission visit,a week before the operation,using radioimmunoassay.

Results

The majority of patients were vit D deficient(81.7%);15.2% of them were vid D insufficient.Only 3% of patients were vitamin D sufficient.There was a significantly positive association between Vit D levels and male gender.

Conclusions

These findings indicate a large percentage of vit D deficient patients with knee or hip OA,which is unexpected.Many other possible predisposing factors should be also considered.Whether treatment with Vit D supplements may provide beneficial effects to these patients and stage of disease in which this treatment should commence remains an issue for further scientific investigation.