Children with cystic fibrosis (CF) usually lack vitamin D and present recommended dose of vitamin D is inadequate to overcome this deficiency, clinicians from The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions concluded.

In analysis of 262 pediatric CF patients, the investigator come to know that vitamin D deficiency has declined but is still high. The deficiency was 86% in 2003 which has declined to 46% in 2006. Patients older than 12 years were more vitamin D deficient than patients younger than 5 years.

Many vitamin D deficient children do not exhibit desired result, although receiving recommended doses of Ergocalciferol, the researchers reported.

The standard treatment dose for vitamin D deficiency is 50,000 IU Ergocalciferol, once in a week for 8 weeks for children 5 years of age or older and 12,000 IU once per week for 8 weeks for children younger than age 5 years.

According to the team, 50,000 IU per week of Ergocalciferol for 8 weeks was effective in only 33% of the patients with vitamin D deficiency, while increasing the dose to twice a week was effective in 26% of patients. Delivering the same dose 3 times a week corrected the deficiency in 43% of children.

“These findings are a big wake-up call not only because they show that many children with CF are lacking vitamin D, but also because the deficiency persists even in those children who are treated with weekly doses twice or 3 times as high as the current recommendations,” said Dr. Green in the statement. “Clearly there is an urgent need to find more effective ways to restore healthy vitamin D levels.”