Abstract.
In order to examine the effects of long-term hospitalization during pregnancy on vitamin D metabolism in pregnant women and neonates, we measured the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels in pregnant women, as well as measuring 25OHD levels in cord blood and breast milk. In pregnant women hospitalized for longer than 1 month, the serum 25OHD levels were decreased at delivery compared with those in control subjects (10.9 ± 2.6 ng/l vs 19.5 ± 4.9 ng/l; P < 0.01). Although the levels of 25OHD in the cord blood were not significantly different between the long-term hospitalized and control pregnant women in this study (9.36 ± 1.7 ng/l vs 11.1 ± 3.0 ng/l), the 25OHD concentrations in the cord blood were significantly lower than the maternal levels in both groups; the ratios of the levels in cord blood to sera in the long-term hospitalized women and control subjects were 82.1% and 60.3%, respectively. Long maternal hospitalization does not always cause neonatal vitamin D deficiency, but could be one of its major risk factors. Therefore, sufficient sunlight exposure and intake of sufficient vitamin D are considered to be important to prevent vitamin D deficiency in long-term hospitalized pregrant women as well as their babies.
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Received: July 10, 2002 / Accepted: October 23, 2002
Acknowledgments. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture of Japan, and a Grant-in Aid from the Research for Metabolic Bone Diseases in Japan.
Offprint requests to: S. Nakajima
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Nishimura, K., Shima, M., Tsugawa, N. et al. Long-term hospitalization during pregnancy is a risk factor for vitamin D deficiency in neonates. J Bone Miner Metab 21, 103–108 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s007740300017
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s007740300017