Vitamin D level in Egyptian children with newly diagnosed immune thrombocytopenia

Abstract Background Newly diagnosed ITP is described as ITP within 3 months of diagnosis. Vitamin D is one of the fat-soluble vitamins that is essential for maintaining the mineral balance in the body and has an immune-modulatory function. It is thought that hypovitaminosis D is common in children with many variable autoimmune diseases, such as ITP. Aim To measure vitamin D level among Egyptian children with newly diagnosed primary ITP and to evaluate the correlation between serum vitamin D level and initial platelet count, severity of bleeding assessed by SMOG bleeding score, IWG bleeding score, as well as response to initial treatment. Methods This is a prospective cohort study. It included 50 pediatric patients with newly diagnosed primary ITP. They were recruited from Abo Elrish Children’s Hospital, Cairo University, from October 2021 to August 2022. Severity of bleeding was assessed by SMOG score and IWG score, and response to treatment was recorded after 1 month of treatment; serum vitamin D level was measured by ELISA. Results Vitamin D deficiency was detected in 34%, while vitamin D insufficiency was detected in 22% among newly diagnosed ITP patients. There was a negative correlation between serum vitamin D level and initial platelet count. There was no significant correlation between vitamin D level and severity of bleeding assessed by SMOG score and IWG score. Also, there was no significant correlation between vitamin D level and response to treatment in ITP. Conclusion Low vitamin D levels are common in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed ITP. In our study, however, serum vitamin D levels did not show a significant correlation with bleeding severity at presentation or with treatment response. Notably, a negative correlation was observed between platelet count and vitamin D levels, indicating a possible role of vitamin D in disease pathophysiology that merits further investigation.