Bone Abstracts

Introduction: Vitamin D is essential for calcium metabolism as well as for fracture prevention. In children, low levels can cause rickets. A high prevalence of inadequacy in children has been reported in many studies. It is entirely prevalent in Lebanese children. There are different ways to detect cut-off points for vitamin D deficiency, The aim of this study was to describe the distribution of serum 25(OH)D levels in Lebanese children, males and females, to evaluate and propose new base line for insufficiency among Lebanese children.

Subjects and Methods: Assessment of vitamin D was performed in 574 Lebanese children up to 15 years old. The primary outcome of interest was 25(OH)D level. The reference ranges used in our laboratory for 25-hydroxy vitamin D were as follows: less than 10 ng/ml (deficiency), 10–30 ng/ml (insufficiency) and 30–100 ng/ml (sufficiency). Subjects were divided into groups each of 5 years length.

Results: Age groups, gender and mean Vitamin D serum levels are shown in tables 1 and 2. We consistently found low levels of vitamin D across all age groups in males and females. Our findings showed a low referral rate of males for Vitamin D testing. In both sexes, the prevalence was lowest in subjects aged 11–15 years.

Discussion: A large group of patients fell into the category of insufficiency. Using the reference range of serum vitamin D level proposed by the IOM(Institute of Medicine)in USA: Deficiency <12 ng/ml, Insufficiency 12–19 ng/ml and Sufficient in vitamin D> 20 ng/ml. will shift almost all our patient to the sufficient serum vitamin D levels. We believe that it is important to redefine the vitamin D cut-off across age groups. We require a new clarification systems to assess the vitamin D levels in our population. We need a new base line for insufficiency. Making the cut-off of vitamin D at 20 ng/ml will shift more than two-thirds of Lebanese population to the level of sufficiency.

Disclosure: The authors declared no competing interests.