Assessment of Correlation Between Costochondritis and Vitamin D Insufficiency in School-age Children

Background: In children, vitamin D deficiency can result in the hypertrophy of costochondral junctions and sternal pain. Objectives: In this study, we aimed at determining the correlation between children’s vitamin D status and costochondritis. Methods: This cross-sectional study included a control group (100 healthy children) and a study group (100 children with costochondritis). Examination of patients included chest radiography, physical examination, history-taking, electrocardiography, echocardiography, and serum measurement of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, phosphorus, calcium, and alkaline phosphatase. The chisquare test, Spearman’s correlation test, and independent samples t-test were also performed for analyzing the data. Results: The groups showed no significant difference regarding age, gender, or body mass index (P = 0.315, P = 0.671, and P = 0.097, respectively). The history of patients experiencing idiopathic chest pain showed cardiac disease in 13% of their families, without report of death in the family. The pain was mainly located in the left precordium (64%), followed by the right precordium and the midsternal region (32% and 18%, respectively). A significantly lower level of 25-OHD was found in the study group than in the control group (P 0.0001). Based on the findings, the groups were not significantly different regarding the evaluated biochemical parameters, except for alkaline phosphatase (P = 0.007). The results showed that pain duration and episodes were significantly associated with vitamin D insufficiency (r = -0.621, P = 0.002; r = -0.213, P = 0.021, respectively). Conclusions: Vitamin D insufficiency should be considered in costochondritis. Also, pain duration and episodes have associations with vitamin D insufficiency. This finding emphasizes the necessity of evaluating nutritional parameters in children with non-cardiac chest pain.