Vitamin D and Parathyroid Hormone Levels in Prediction of the Prevalence of Cerebrovascular Accident in Geriatric Patients

Background: Plasma 25- (OH) Vitamin D level and various disorders such as metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular problems, dementia, chronic renal disease, chronic pulmonary disease, colorectal cancer were shown to be associated. However, recent studies indicate that parathyroid hormone (PTH) may also have an impact on the development of aforementioned disorders. In this study, we aimed to investigate plasma vitamin D and serum PTH status and cerebrovascular accident association in the elderly. Material and Methods: Totally, 1078 adult patients aged 65 year-old or older (103 patients with a past medical history of stroke and 975 patients without stroke history) were included in this cross sectional study. After comprehensive geriatric assessment, laboratory investigations including plasma vitamin D and serum PTH levels were evaluated. Results: The median of plasma 25- (OH) Vitamin D levels (16.28 vs. 18.00 ng/ml) was significantly lower and the median of serum PTH levels (58.7 vs. 54.9 pg/ml) was significantly higher in patients with stroke than in patients without history of stroke group (P=0.016 and P=0.019, respectively). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that only serum PTH level (OR=1.007, 95% CI=1.002- 1.012, P=0.007) was an independent variable for stroke. Conclusion: Our study supports the assumption that elevated PTH has a role in stroke risk stratification. We would like to emphasize that serum PTH level -even though it is in the reference range- may be a predictor of cardiovascular outcomes such as cerebrovascular accident in the elderly.