Vitamin D Levels in a Population of Healthy Subjects and its Association with Metabolic Derangement and Cardiac and Carotid Target Organ Damage

Introduction: While vitamin D is primarily recognized for its role in intestinal calcium absorption and bone mineralization, it had numerous extra-skeletal effects also regarding the cardiovascular (CV) systems. Aim: To evaluate the correlation between vitamin D levels and cardiovascular risk factors and Target Organ Damage (TOD) in a healthy population. Methods: We enrolled 311 healthy participants from a CV risk assessment program at Niguarda Hospital. Medical history, physical exams, Blood Pressure (BP), Body Mass Index (BMI) and laboratory tests (glucose, lipids, creatinine, eGFR) were collected. TOD was evaluated by echocardiography and carotid ultrasound. Results: At multivariable models with age, sex and kidney function as covariates, vitamin D was significantly associated with BMI (β=-0.142, p = 0.007), SBP (β=-0.116, p = 0.039), triglycerides (β=-0.239, p < 0.001) and HDL (β = 0.141, p = 0.007). Furthermore, vitamin D deficiency (< 12 ng/mL) was significantly associated with hypertriglyceridemia (> 150 mg/dL) with an HR of 5.984 (p < 0.001). No significant association with TOD was found. Conclusions: Our study found that low vitamin D levels are linked to metabolic disturbances, including lower HDL and higher TG, BP, and BMI, but showed no significant association with heart or carotid TOD. One could speculate that in an otherwise healthy population metabolic derangement determined by low vitamin D levels could precede TOD development.