High-Dose Vitamin D Fails to Mitigate COPD Exacerbations

More bad news for the cure du jour.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations and secondary COPD outcomes showed no improvement with high-dose vitamin D, according to a small, single-center randomized trial — the first such trial of vitamin D and COPD. However, the study probably will not put the concept to rest that vitamin D merits further scientific study for patients with moderate to severe COPD. The trial was published in the January 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Particularly for COPD, the vitamin D pathway is an attractive target for intervention studies because vitamin D deficiency may enhance chronic airway and systemic inflammation, reduce bacterial clearance, and increase the risk for infectious exacerbations at the same time," write lead author An Lehouk, PhD, from the Department of Medical Sciences, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues.

There was no significant improvement in several exacerbation outcomes, including time to the first exacerbation (the primary outcome), time to the second exacerbation, annual rate of exacerbations, and median time to first hospitalization for an exacerbation.

Oops.