Scurvy in the Modern World: Extinct or Not?

Scurvy is a nutritional disorder caused by vitamin C deficiency. It was a notorious disease in the ancient world, especially among the sailors, and is of rare occurrence in contemporary, developed countries due to increased access and advancement in nutrition services. Scurvy primarily affects the skin and soft tissue, presenting with a myriad of clinical manifestations ranging from musculoskeletal to bleeding-related complaints and even sudden death in later stages. In this article, we present the case of an elderly female with scurvy-related weakness and gait instability leading to mechanical falls, easy bruising, fatigue, and petechial rash. She had improvement in her constitutional symptoms after the initiation of vitamin C supplements. This case reinforces the need to consider scurvy as one of the differentials for petechial rash and easy bruising apart from bleeding diathesis and vasculitis in the contemporary world, especially in at-risk populations.

Practical Vitamin D Supplementation Using Machine Learning.

BACKGROUND: Patients with breast cancer are at increased risk of developing osteoporosis. Maintaining normal levels of vitamin D may decrease the risk of osteoporosis, and vitamin D levels must be corrected in patients who develop osteoporosis before beginning bone modifying agents. Therefore, it is important to correct insufficient vitamin D levels in a timely manner. In clinical practice, current guidelines for replacement regimens often fail to rapidly correct vitamin D levels. The goal of this study was to review data in order to predict what replacement regimen(s) were most effective at repleting vitamin D levels. METHODS: For this retrospective cohort study, data was collected from medical records of 2,164 female patients with breast cancer with Institutional Review Board approval. Total level change per week was the primary outcome and was compared for the most commonly used vitamin D replacement regimens adjusted for age, race, body mass index, creatinine clearance, endocrine therapy, and initial level. RESULTS: Higher weekly doses of vitamin D supplementation had a more significant impact on the rate of correction compared to lower daily doses. Generalized linear model was used to develop an online calculator that predicts time to vitamin D level correction adjusted for significant patient characteristics for 5 common replacement regimens as well as no intervention. CONCLUSIONS: When choosing a vitamin D replacement regimen for patients with vitamin D deficiency, we recommend clinicians use the online calculator to ensure that the chosen regimen will enable the patient to reach vitamin D sufficiency in a timely manner.