Heart valve disease: the role of calcidiol deficiency, elevated parathyroid hormone levels and oxidative stress in mitral and aortic valve insufficiency.

Objectives: Endothelia, intima, and connective tissues comprise the heart valves, but the relationship between heart valve damage, the pathogenesis of valve degeneration, and vitamin D, oxidative stress remains unclear. Here, we assessed serum 25(OH) vitamin D (calcidiol), parathormone (PTH), and redox balance in patients with mitral valve regurgitation (MR) and aortic valve regurgitation (AR).

Methods: This study includes 56 chronic heart valve disease (HVD) patients. Patients were diagnosed with MR or AR depending on the echocardiographic findings. Also, 40 sex-matched healthy control participants were enrolled for comparison. Serum calcidiol, PTH, total oxidative status (TOS), and total antioxidative capacity were measured, and the oxidative stress index (OSI) was calculated.

Results: Patients with HVD demonstrated significantly higher PTH, increased TOS and OSI, and a higher frequency of calcidiol deficiency than the control participants. Calcidiol and TOS were negatively correlated (r = -0.29; P <0.005), as were calcidiol and OSI (r = -0.413; P = 0.001). PTH and OSI were positively correlated (r = 0.22; P = 0.02).

Discussion: We demonstrate that vitamin D deficiency and secondary increases in PTH are highly prevalent. Heart valve regurgitation (AR and MR) is correlated to oxidative stress and hypovitaminosis D.