What is it about?
Vitamin D is essential for bone and muscle health. Diet does not supply enough quantities and so, the remainder must be supplemented or obtained by exposure to sunlight to help our skin manufacture Vitamin D. Incapacitating muscle weakness can result from profound deficiency
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Why is it important?
Complete recovery with correction of the deficiency is achieved by maintaining a high index of suspicion for the diagnosis of Vitamin D deficiency. We describe three cases from real life examples in different situations, how the diagnosis was delayed but finally arrived at and the patients' health restored.
Perspectives
When I saw these patients for the first time, I was not the first doctor to be consulted. They had seen many prior to consulting me. Unfortunately, the diagnosis was missed on all earlier occasions. A high-index of suspicion is needed to suspect profound muscle weakness as a presenting feature of Vitamin D deficiency. Many other conditions cause a similar picture and must be excluded. Nothing is more rewarding in the life of a doctor when a thankful patient comes back fully recovered from what was described to them as incurable! I was fortunate to enjoy this success.
Dr Venkatraman Rajkumar
Banting Clinic for Diabetes and Endocrinology Chennai India
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Vitamin D Deficiency Presenting as Proximal Myopathy: An Overlooked Diagnosis - A Case Series and Review of the Literature, European Medical Journal, February 2022, European Medical Group,
DOI: 10.33590/emj/21-00248.
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