Assessment of micronutrients in pediatric vertigo

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients admitted to the pediatric neurology outpatient clinic with the complaint of vertigo and to investigate the role of micronutrients in the etiology of vertigo Materials and Methods: This study retrospectively evaluated the patients aged four to 18 years who were admitted to the pediatric neurology outpatient clinic with the complaint of vertigo to evaluate the clinical characteristics and the role of micronutrients in the etiology of vertigo. Patients, for whom the Z00.1 code, the routine child health examination code, was entered in the pediatric outpatient clinic in the same period when the patients presented with the complaint of vertigo were included as the healthy control group. Hemogram and hormone profiles [25(OH)D, FT4, TSH, vitamin B12, folic acid and ferritin] of the groups were compared. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the study group and healthy controls in terms of age and gender. Hematocrit (p<0.001), platelet (p<0.001), vitamin B12 (p=0.015), vitamin D (p=0.043) and TSH (p=0.013) levels were found to be significantly lower in the vertigo group compared to the control group. Conclusion: The importance of micronutritional deficiencies cannot be denied in patients presenting with vertigo symptoms. Main point that makes our study valuable is that there are limited number of studies in the literature comparing laboratory parameters of pediatric patients with vertigo symptoms and healthy controls. There is a need for prospective studies, involving more cases and awareness on this issue.