Evaluation of neurological prognosis in children with hypocalcemic seizures due to vitamin d deficiency

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the neurologic findings of patients who had hypo- calcemic seizures due to vitamin D deficiency during a 1 year period. Methods: Thirty-two patients aged between 6 days and 24 months who were followed up for hypocalcemic seizures between July 2017 and July 2018 were included in the study. Gross motor, fine motor, language, and social developmental levels were evaluated using the Denver developmental test at the time of diagnosis and the 6th month. Results: Seventy-two percentages of the patients were male (n=23) and 28% (n=9) were female. Corrected serum calcium level averaged 6.03±1.06 mg/dL, and phosphorus was 5.2±1.72 mg/dL, alkaline phosphatase was 575.2±405.8 U/L, parathormone was 231.4±123.8 ng/mL, and 25 OH-vitamin D levels were found as 9.6±8.5 ng/mL. When the vitamin D levels of the mothers were examined, the average was 7.16±2.62 ng/mL. The 6-month difference in both gross and fine motor development was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively). The 6-month difference in the evaluation of social development and language development was not statistically significant (p=0.083 and p=0.180, respectively). The 6-month difference in fine and gross motor development over the patients was consid- ered to be statistically significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: Psychomotor retardation is also observed in infants with vitamin D deficiency, because vitamin D is a neurohormone that has an important role in calcium metabolism, which plays a role in neurotransmitter production, release, reuptake, and in stages of brain cell proliferation, differentiation, and development.