Clinical Cardiology, 10/01/2015

Jiang WL, et al. – In recent years, there has been growing evidence that vitamin D deficiency is associated with the development and progression of chronic heart failure (CHF). Vitamin D supplementation may decrease serum levels of parathyroid hormone and inflammatory mediators in CHF patients, whereas it has no beneficial effects on improvement of left ventricular function and exercise tolerance.

Methods

• The authors searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases through June 2015 and included 7 randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of vitamin D on cardiovascular outcomes in patients with CHF.
• Then, they performed a meta–analysis of clinical trials to confirm whether vitamin D supplementation is beneficial in CHF patients.
• The weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using fixed– or random–effects models.

Results

• This pooled results indicated that additional supplementation of vitamin D was not superior to conventional treatment in terms of left ventricular ejection fraction, N–terminal pro–B–type natriuretic peptide, and 6–minute walk distance.
• Moreover, vitamin D supplementation was associated with significant decreases in the levels of tumor necrosis factor–α (WMD: –2.42 pg/mL, 95% CI: –4.26 to –0.57, P < 0.05), C–reactive protein (WMD: –0.72 mg/L, 95% CI: –1.42 to –0.02, P < 0.05), and parathyroid hormone (WMD: –13.44 pg/mL, 95% CI: –21.22 to –5.67, P < 0.05).

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