DL-999: Vitamin D, 2 CE

Les Revier BS, MBA, CLS, C(ASCP) - Senior Manager, UCSD Medical Center Laboratory, Retired - Program Director, San Diego Miramar College MLT Program Approved for 2.0 CE Level of Difficulty: Intermediate CAMLT is approved by the California Department of Public Health as a CA CLS Accrediting Agency (#21) Over the last decade, interest in vitamin D has exploded. This vitamin, previously known primarily for its importance in preventing the bone conditions of rickets in children and osteomalacia, the softening of the bones, in adults, has recently been recognized as having a substantially greater role in health. Vitamin D is now known to affect a variety of physiologic systems and increased intake has been linked to a number of favorable health outcomes and even to a reduction in overall mortality. 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD), vitamin D, determination is of diagnostic importance for the investigation of vitamin D deficiency and much more rarely, intoxication. Despite the name, vitamin D is a pre-hormone, being endogenously synthesized provided there is adequate sunlight. Its biological function, exerted through the active form 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-(OH)2D) is to maintain calcium and phosphate levels in the blood. In addition, vitamin D has important roles in immune regulation.