Vitamin D Levels in Neonates With and Without Seizures: A Single Center Cross-Sectional Study.

Reddy, Jonnala Chaitanya; Barche, Apurv; Andrade, Sneha Jaganathan; Verma, Aditya; Lewis, Leslie Edward; Purkayastha, Jayashree

OBJECTIVE To study the serum vitamin D levels in neonatal seizures and vitamin D status of the mothers whose babies had vitamin D deficiency. METHODS For this case-control study, vitamin D levels were studied in term and late preterm neonates admitted to NICU with seizures in a tertiary care center in South India. Controls were term and late preterm healthy neonates admitted in the postnatal ward with the mothers in the same center. RESULT 30 cases and 30 controls were enrolled. The mean (SD) serum vitamin D was 19.33 (7.76) ng/mL among cases and 16.83 (6.74) ng/mL among controls (P=0.18). We tested maternal vitamin D levels in babies with seizures and low vitamin D levels. The mean (SD) serum vitamin D level among these mothers (n=11) was 13.25 (6.17) ng/mL. CONCLUSION There was no statistically significant association between serum vitamin D levels and seizures among neonates in our study. However, we found low vitamin D levels in lactating mothers and newborn population of this region.