ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D deficiency is an emerging risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Very few studies have been done to find out vitamin D deficiency status among cardiovascular patients in Nepalese setup. This research aims to find out the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among patients of acute coronary syndrome admitted in a tertiary care center of eastern Nepal. METHODS: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among patients of acute coronary syndrome admitted in a tertiary care hospital from 1st February 2018 to 31st July 2018. Ethical clearence was taken from Institutional Review Committee of B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (Reference number: 259/074/075-IRC). Convenience sampling method was used. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. RESULTS: A total of 33 (64.7%) at 95% Confidence Interval (51.58-77.82) patients of acute coronary syndrome had vitamin D deficiency in our study with 19 (37.3%) having mild deficiency and 14 (27.4%) having moderate deficiency. None of the patients had severe vitamin D deficiency in our study. The mean vitamin D levels were lower in diabetics (23.57±9.28ng/ml) as compared to non-diabetics (31.91±12.50ng/ml), in hypertensive patients (24.36±7.67ng/ml) as compared to non-hypertensive patients (30.97±13.72ng/ml), and in patients with dyslipidemia (22.86±6.44ng/ml) as compared to those without dyslipidemia (37.68±13.15ng/ml). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among patients of acute coronary syndrome in our study was comparable to various other homologous international studies.