Effect of Vitamin D and calcium supplementation on ischaemic stroke outcome: a randomised controlled open-label trial

Who the fuck is going to do a followup study? Or will this be like 99% of stroke research that never gets answered because we have NO stroke leadership or strategy?  If you have a few extra millions, hire your own researchers, that is the only way survivors will ever get answers. All because we have fucking failures of stroke associations. And since 1 in 6 will get a stroke per WHO you billionaires out there might want to invest in this for your family.

Effect of Vitamin D and calcium supplementation on ischaemic stroke outcome: a randomised controlled open-label trial

Gupta A¹, Prabhakar S¹, Modi M¹, Bhadada SK², Kalaivani M³, Lal V¹, Khurana D¹.

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Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:

Vitamin D deficiency is a common problem in stroke survivors. Observational studies have reported an association of low vitamin D levels with greater stroke severity, poststroke mortality and functional disability. Randomised clinical trials are lacking. We sought to assess the effect of calcium and vitamin D supplementation in ischaemic stroke survivors with vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency on disability/mortality outcomes.

METHODS:

In this randomised controlled open-label trial, 73 patients of acute ischaemic stroke were screened for serum 25 hydroxy Vitamin D (25(OH)D) levels. A total of 53 patients with baseline 25(OH)D <75 nmol/L were randomised into two arms. One received vitamin D and calcium supplementation along with usual care (n=25) and the other received usual care alone (n=28). Primary outcome was the proportion of patients achieving a good outcome [modified Rankin Scale score 0-2] at 6 months and all cause mortality at 6 months.

RESULTS:

The age (mean±SD) of participants was 60.4±11.3 years, 69.8% were males. The proportion of patients achieving good outcome was higher in the intervention arm (Adjusted OR 1.9, 95% CI 0.6-6.4; P=.31). The survival probability was greater in the intervention arm (83.8%, CI 62.4-93.6) as compared with the control arm (59.5%, CI 38.8-75.2; P=.049) with adjusted Hazard ratio (HR) of 0.26 (95% CI 0.08-0.9; P=.03).

CONCLUSIONS:

This is the first randomised controlled study assessing the effect of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on ischaemic stroke outcomes and points towards a potential benefit. Findings need to be validated by a larger trial.