Vitamin D supplementation associated with better heart function in heart failure patients

August 16 2021. The outcome of a meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials that evaluated the effects of vitamin D supplementation on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in heart failure patients adds evidence to a beneficial effect for the vitamin in this patient population. The research was published in the June 2021 issue of the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology.

Left ventricular ejection fraction is a measure of the percentage of blood the heart’s left ventricle pumps out during each contraction. Determination of LVEF is used in the diagnosis of heart failure.

Researchers at Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd, Iran selected 13 trials that included a total of 1,215 heart failure patients for their analysis. Vitamin D dosages ranged from 400 international units (IU) to 50,000 IU per day for periods of 12 weeks to three years. Results of the meta-analysis revealed a significant 3.304% average increase in ejection fraction in association with vitamin D.

“In this study we observed that vitamin D supplements can be significantly effective in enhancing the most important and the most common myocardial function index, ejection fraction, with a raw mean difference of 3.304,” Aryan Naghedi and colleagues concluded. “The clinical importance of this 3.3% enhancement of ejection fraction in patients with heart failure gains further value on when we look back in the literature for the significance of LVEF in patients with heart failure. In different validated studies and clinical trials, researchers concluded that enhancement in LVEF is directly associated with lower rehospitalization and cardiovascular mortality.”

“Based on our observations, we conclude that before conducting a large number of high quality clinical trials and further meta-analysis, vitamin D should be prescribed to all patients with heart failure,” the authors recommended.

—D Dye