Use of vitamin D as an acute phase reactant in acute bacterial infections in children

Aims: Many studies in the literature have focused on the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and infection. Our aim in this study is to provide responses to the questions “Is vitamin D an acute phase reactant?” or “Is it affected by acute bacterial infections suffered?’’ Methods: Study was conducted with patients who were followed up with acute bacterial infection between April and December 2016 in the Pediatrics Clinic of Sivas Cumhuriyet University Faculty of Medicine Hospital. And investigate both the relationship between infection and vitamin D levels before and after treatment in the presence of culture-proven acute bacterial infection in children aged 2-7 years and the correlation between vitamin D levels and other acute phase reactants. Results: Patient and control groups each included 35 child participants. Both the study and control groups contained 18 (51.4%) female and 17 (48.6%) male children. The mean ages of the study, and the control group were 4.51±1.57 and 4.98±1.79 years. the mean vitamin D levels of the patients were 21.83±18.16 ng/ml before treatment and 20.16±10.52 ng/ml on the 5th day of treatment and it was 21.08±8.44 ng/ml in the control group. There was no significant difference between both groups in terms of vitamin D levels measured both before and on the 5th day of treatment (p=0.625). Conclusion: In our study, there was no difference in vitamin D levels between the infection and control groups. Studies with a larger number of patients are needed to better understand the importance of vitamin D in acute bacterial infections.