History

Background: Earlier surveys found that thalassemic patients on repeated blood transfusions unveiled substantial falls in vitamin D concentrations. This observational study aimed to assess vitamin D status among transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia major patients in Babylon City.Materials and methods: This is a single-center observational study comprising 304 patients with β-thalassemia major (184 males and 120 females) aged between 2.3-17.9 years. The next records were taken from all candidates: demographic features, age at first diagnosis, socioeconomic state, family history, residency, frequency of blood transfusions per month, types of chelating therapy; and laboratory examinations of serum vitamin D and ferritin. The statistical inspection had finished using the SPSS software version23. The qualitative parameters had stated as count +/- percentage, whereas the quantitative parameters had expressed as means +/- SD. A P-value of less than or equal to 5% reflected a significant value.Results: The mean ages of the patients were 12.8 ± 9.9 years, with the predominant male sex (60.5%), and around 2/3^rd of them lived in rural areas and (62.1%) have a positive family history of thalassemia among the siblings. The main finding was a high frequency of hypovitaminosis D among thalassemia subjects (40.4%). As well, there was a nonsignificant association between the serum vitamin D levels and ferritin (P-0.3, r-0.11), a highly-significant negative association between vitamin D levels and the ages (P-0.3, r –0.3), and a highly-significant positive association between levels of ferritin and the ages (P-0.006, r-0.2) among the thalassemia patients.Conclusions: Our results suggest a high incidence of hypovitaminosis D among thalassemia subjects with a non-significant correlation between serum vitamin D levels and ferritin. As well, there was a highly significant correlation between ferritin levels and age among the thalassemia patients.