Association Between Vitamin D Status and Sepsis

BACKGROUND: It is well-established that vitamin D status is closely associated with the susceptibility to infections. We aimed to study the association between vitamin D status and sepsis risk and death, and also analyzed the correlation between vitamin D level and sepsis-related factors. METHODS: We searched the articles regarding the association between vitamin D level and sepsis through May 2017 in electronic databases. We pooled the data and analyzed the association between vitamin D level and sepsis risk, death, and albumin (ALB), mortality, body mass index (BMI), procalcitonin (PCT), male/female ratio, interleukin-6 (IL-6), platelet (PLT), c-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC). RESULTS: Twenty-four studies were included. The pooled results demonstrated that sepsis cases had significantly lower levels of vitamin D than non-sepsis cases in overall populations, Caucasians, and Africans (p < 0.05). Vitamin D status was not correlated with ALB, PLT, WBC, mortality, PCT, BMI, male/female ratio, IL-6 and CRP levels (p > 0.05) in sepsis cases. Sepsis death was not associated with vitamin D deficiency (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Lower status of vitamin D may be a biomarker of sepsis risk in overall populations, Caucasians, and Africans. Vitamin D level has no impact on the biochemical indexes and prognosis of sepsis. However, further studies should be performed in the future.