Prognostic impact of Vitamin D deficiency in patients with coronary artery disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention

•Vitamin D deficiency is a pandemic disorder affecting over 1 billion of subjects worldwide.•Its implications on cardiovascular and inflammatory disorders are still debated.•We evaluated the prognostic impact of the levels of vitamin D among patients with CAD undergoing PCI.•We demonstrated that lower 25(OH)D is associated with an impaired survival and a higher rate of recurrent cardiovascular events at over 3-years follow-up. Whether Vitamin D deficiency represents an independent predictor of mortality and major cardiovascular events or rather the mirror of a more advanced clinical condition with increased comorbidities is still debated. We aimed at assessing the impact of vitamin D levels on the long-term outcomes among patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Consecutive patients from a single centre were included. Vitamin D levels were measured at admission by chemiluminescence immunoassay kit LIAISON® Vitamin D assay (Diasorin Inc). Severe deficiency was defined for 25(OH)D < 10 ng/ml. The primary study endpoint was overall mortality. Secondary endpoints were cardiovascular mortality, recurrent acute coronary syndrome or major cardiovascular events (a composite of death, recurrent MI and target vessel revascularization) at the longest available follow-up. We included a total of 705 patients, that were divided according to vitamin D tertiles (