Vitamin D is a steroid hormone. Effect of vitamin D on bone health has long been known. Vitamin D is also found to be associated with various diseases like diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, cancer. Neuroprotective action of vitamin D makes it and its levels an important marker in clinical course of neurological diseases such as cognitive impairment, dementia and alzheimer's disease. Vitamin D deficiency is also associated with increased risk of stroke. We

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... arried out a study at tertiary care centre to access the effect of vitamin D levels on severity and prognosis of stroke. Material and Methods: This was a prospective, observational study conducted in Pt. B.D Sharma P.G.I.M.S Rohtak on 200 stroke patients admitted in Medicine ward. NIHSS and mRS scale was used to assess the severity of stroke at admission and functional outcome at 3 months respectively. Four groups were divided on the basis of vitamin D levels. Data was coded and recorded in MS excel spreadsheet program and SPSS version 21 was used for data analysis. Results: Vitamin D deficiency was associated with higher NIHSS score and independently associated with poor functional outcome. Patients with severe, mild, and insufficient vitamin D deficiency had 9, 6.7, and 3.9 times higher adjusted odds of poorer functional outcomes at 3-months in comparison to the patients with normal vitamin D levels (P<0.01) when adjusted for age, sex, alcohol, smoking, BMI, NIHSS score, and co-morbidities. Conclusion: Vitamin D is associated with severe stroke and poor functional outcome at 3 months. However, further studies need to be carried out to evaluate whether supplementation of vitamin D can help prevent stroke or associated morbidity and mortality.