Cardiac functions and total antioxidant activity in children with vitamin D defficiency rickets

Rickets is a disease which occurs in Vitamin D deficiency. Long duration of hypocalcemia can give rise to development of myocardial dysfunctions.Imbalance between oxidants production rate and antioxidant defence causes oxidant stress. Increased oxidative stress has an important role in occurrence and progress of various diseases. The purpose of this study was measurement of cardiac functions and antioxidant capacity in patients with rickets and evoluated of the relationship between them.20 patients, diagnosed with nutritional rickets and 20 healthy children as control group were included in the study. Total calcium, phosphor, alkaline phosphatase, 25-dihydoxy Vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total oxidative stress (TOS) were measured in the blood samples before treatment and 1 month after treatment. Telecardiography, electrocardiography and echocardiography were performed for cardiac evaluation in all patients.Levels of calcium, phosphor, alkaline phosphatase and parathyroid hormone revealed as statistical significantly improved according to pretreatment. Although, pret-reatment levels of TAC (1.06±0.22mmol Trolox eq/L) were lower than post-treatment levels of TAC (1.13±0.30mmol Trolox eq/L) and control group (1.14±0.23mmol Trolox eq/L), there weren?t as statistical significantly different.On the other hand pre-treatment (21.2±13.2mmol Trolox eq/L) and post- treatment (17.6±15.9mmol Trolox eq/L) levels of TOS were higher than and control group (7.3±2.4mmol Trolox eq/L) and there were as statistical significantly different (p<0.05) Although post-treatment levels of TOS were lower than pre-treatment levels, there weren?t as statistical significantly different.Although in the patients with rickets weren?t determined a significantly different according to control group, in the stage III cases were obsorwed the diastolic dysfunction. In stage III cases, with increasing TOS levels, a negative relationship with interventricular septum early diastolic rate was noted, but there wasn?t as statistical significantly different.In conclusion, cardiac functions were influenced negatively in advanced stages of rickets. We suggest that increase in oxidative stress could be contributed this effect.