@article{Vaidya_Nakarmi_Chaudhary_Batajoo_Rajbhandari_2014, title={Study of hypovitaminosis D as a cause of chronic widespread pain in patients presenting to rheumatology clinic}, volume={3}, url={https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JAIM/article/view/10694}, DOI={10.3126/jaim.v3i1.10694}, abstractNote={<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Hypovitaminosis D is common in south-east Asian countries. Deficient vitamin-D level is likely to be associated with chronic muscular pains. We do not have data from our country regarding the magnitude of this problem.</p> <p><strong>Methods: </strong>A prospective open labeled study at rheumatology opd from December 2009 to December 2012. Patients with chronic widespread pain and bone pains of >3 months duration were included in the study. Hypothyroidism, chronic renal failure and other rheumatological diagnosis except fibromyalgia were excluded. Visual analogue score (VAS) for pain and serum Vitamin-D levels were measured. Patients with low Vitamin-D were given oral Vitamin-D 60,000IU for 6 months. Response to therapy was evaluated using improvement in VAS.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Among 1680 patients, 66?2% were females. Hypovitaminosis-D was seen in 1388(82?6%), of which 27?5% had severe deficiency with Vitamin D levels <10ng/ml. Fibromyalgia overlap present in 25?7%. Mean initial VAS score was 8?7, 8?2 and 7?4 for patients in severe deficiency, mild deficiency and insufficiency group respectively. At 6 months follow-up, the VAS scores were 0, 2?1 and 3?6 respectively. After 6 months of treatment, no improvement was seen in 196 patients (11?6%) and all non-responders had fibromyalgia overlap. Vitamin- D level was checked again in non-responders and repeat vitamin-D levels were still low in 10 of them.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Hypovitaminosis-D can be a significant cause of Chronic widespread pain in the general population and seems to aggravate the pain of fibromyalgia. Improvement was rapid and better in severe cases.</p> <p>DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jaim.v3i1.10694">http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jaim.v3i1.10694</a></p> <p>Journal of Advances in Internal Medicine 2014;03(01):1-4</p>}, number={1}, journal={Journal of Advances in Internal Medicine}, author={Vaidya, Binit and Nakarmi, Shweta and Chaudhary, Arvind and Batajoo, Poojan and Rajbhandari, Nija}, year={2014}, month={Jul.}, pages={1–4} }