CHILDHOOD BRONCHIAL ASTHMA

Objectives: Determine serum cholecalciferol in childhood bronchial asthma andits association with asthma severity. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration:Department of Paediatrics, Layari General Hospital, Shaheed Muhtrama Benazir Bhutto MedicalCollege Karachi from January 2015 – November 2016. Subjects and Methods: 100 diagnosedcases of childhood bronchial asthma and 100 controls were included. 5 ml venous blood wasused for the full blood counts and sera were used for the serum cholecalciferol and IgE. Datawas analysed on statistical software (SPSS v 22.0, IBM, Incorporation, USA) at 95% confidenceinterval (P ≤ 0.05). Results: Mean ± SD age of controls and cases was noted 8.23±1.84 and9.40 ±0.54 years. Low serum cholecalciferol was noted in the cases compared to the controls(25.7±14.5 vs. 38.3±15.5 ng/dl) (p=0.0001) with a rise in blood eosinophil, absolute eosinophilcounts and serum Ig E. Serum cholecalciferol shows negative correlation with serum IgE, bloodeosinophil and absolute eosinophil counts. Conclusion: The present study reports low serumcholecalciferol in childhood bronchial asthma. Cholecalciferol shows negative association withseverity of asthma.