Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is unclear about the association between vitamin D level and target organ damage in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes in China. Aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between vitamin D level and target organ damage in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes of Chinese population.

METHODS: A retrospective study was performed on 254 elderly patients with type 2 diabetes (148 males and 106 females). According to assay of 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D], the participants were divided into a deficiency group (n=129), an insufficiency group (n=77) and a sufficiency group (n=48). The clinical indicators of target organ damages among these groups were analyzed, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to predict the target organ damage.

RESULTS: Approximately 81.1% of patients were the low level of 25(OH)D with mean 25(OH)D below 30ng/ml. When compared with those in the sufficiency group, the level of left ventricular absolute mass index (LVMI), the morning urine albumin/uric creatinine ratio (ACR) and carotid intimal medial thickness (cIMT) increased significantly and creatinine clearance rate (CcR) decreased significantly in the deficiency group (P<0.05). The level of ACR and cIMT in the insufficiency group also increased significantly (P<0.05). There was a higher proportion in kidney, brain, artery and total target organ damage in the deficiency group or insufficiency group than those in the sufficiency group (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that low-level 25(OH)D  (< 30ng/ml) was independently associated with total target organ damage in patients with elderly type 2 diabetes (OR = 3.58; 95%CI: 1.60-8.02,P =0.002)

CONCLUSIONS: A condition of hypovitaminosis D is commonly present in Chinese patients with elderly type 2 diabetes. The low level of 25(OH)D may contribute to aggravate target organ damage of elderly type 2 diabetes.

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