More blood was pumped by those getting 800,000 IU of vitamin D after heart failure – RCT Oct 2013

The role of vitamin d supplementation in patients with heart failure. a randomized double blind controlled trial

Eur Heart J (2013) 34 (suppl 1): doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/eht309.P3339
. Dalbeni, G andrea.dalbeni@ospedaleuniverona.it , Scaturro, P. Minuz, M. De Gan and P. Delva
University of Verona, Department of Medicine, Section of Internal Medicine D, Verona, Italy

Objective: Low vitamin D levels are commonly founded in patients with heart failure and may contribute to worsen the heart function.
We examined the influence of vitamin D supplementation on left ventricular ejection fraction (EF%) in patients with deficiency.

Design and methods: We randomized twenty-three chronic heart failure patients in parallel group, double bind, placebo-controlled trial. All patients mean age 74 years, and with vitamin D levels <30 ng/mL, received 800.000 U of oral cholecalciferol or placebo during the six months follow-up. Outcomes measured at baseline and after 6 months were EF% and other echocardiography parameters (left ventricular mass, wall thickness, end-diastolic and systolic diameter), natriuretic peptides, lipid profile, renin, anti-inflammatory cytokines, PTH, blood pressure and BMI.

Results: In patients in active treatment mean plasma vitamin D concentrations after 6 months significantly increased with the respect of the placebo group (active treatment +15.51 ng/mL [CI 10,4-20,6], placebo group -1.40 ng/mL [CI -8,15 – 5,35], p<0.001).
Other bone biomarkers (Calcium and Parathyroid hormone) did not differ between the two groups after 6 months.
At the end of the follow-up period,

  • EF significantly increased in the intervention group as compared to the placebo group (active treatment + 6.71% [CI 0,8-12,6 ] while placebo group -4.3% [CI -9,5 – 0,9]; p =0.007).

No any significant variations have been seen on cytokines levels, B-type natriuretic peptides levels, renin levels, blood pressure, lipid profile and BMI.

Conclusions: Six months of Vitamin D supplementation significantly improves ejection fraction in elderly patients with heart failure and vitamin D deficiency.


Reason that VitaminDWiki suspects that the 800,000 IU may have been given as a single dose.
They observed only a 15 ng raise of vitamin D level at the end of the 6 month study period
There would have been much higher level of vitamin D if the dose had been spread out over say a 3 month period
Also, expect that there would have been a higher ejection fraction increase if the dose had been spread out.

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