Effect of high-dose vitamin D supplementation on radiographically detectable bone disease of very low birth weight infants

To test the hypothesis that high-dose vitamin D 2 supplementation would result in a lower incidence of radiographically detectable bone disease, we randomly assigned 40 very low birth weight infants to a control group who received vitamin D 2 in a dosage of 400 IU/day and 41 to an experimental group who received a dosage of 2000 IU/day. After 6 weeks, radiographs from all infants were scored blindly for degree of radiographic bone disease, and serum osteocalcin and 25-hydroxyvitamin Dlevels were measured. Mean vitamin D intake was 360±141 (SD) IU/day in the control group and 2170±144 (SD) IU/day in the experimental group. Median 6-week serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were 24 ng/ml (range 3 to 60 ng/ml) in the control group and 68 ng/ml (range 9 to 150 ng/ml) in the experimental group ( p