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Vitamin D receptor is present in almost every cell of the body. Although some studies have suggested that values >30ng/ml would be sufficient, there is no consensus on the optimal values of serum vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to “benign” manifestations, such as back pain, joint pain, fatigue, and heavy sweating. Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) originating from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) are considered “benign,” as they occur in patients without structural heart disease and their exact cause remains unknown. We describe the case of a 10-year-old boy with frequent PVCs and vitamin D deficiency that was corrected after vitamin D supplementation. On the contrary, his twin brother had normal serum vitamin D and no PVCs. The disappearance of PVCs occurred after treatment with vitamin D 2000 IU/day.

Background Ischaemic stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) due to occult atrial fibrillation (AF) may cause severe morbidity and mortality. Diagnosing occult AF can be challenging and there is no consensus regarding the optimal duration of screening. A 24-hour Holter electrocardiogram (ECG) is frequently employed to detect occult AF following ischaemic CVA. Objectives Demonstration of occult AF detection rate using a 24-hour Holter ECG in a primary care setting with descriptive analyses of independent variables to compare AF detected and non-detected patients. Methods This retrospective cross-sectional study utilised primary care data and included patients 50 years and older with a new CVA or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) diagnosis followed by a 24-hour Holter examination within 6 months, between 01 January 2013 and 01 June 2019. The analyses included descriptive statistics comparing demographics and clinical characteristics in patients who had AF or Atrial Flutter (AFL) detection to those who did not. Results Out of 5015 eligible patients, 66 (1.3%) were diagnosed with AF/AFL, with a number needed to screen of 88.5. Compared with those without AF/AFL detection, those diagnosed were older (75.42 ± 7.89 vs. 69.89 ± 9.88, p = 0.050), had a higher prevalence of hypertension (80.3% vs. 66.8%, p = 0.021) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) (71.2% vs. 44.2%, p

Since alterations in the autonomic nervous system are thought to play a major role in the pathogenesis of vasovagal syncope, we characterized the chronic autonomic profile of 44 patients with syncope and 20 healthy subjects by means of heart rate variability using 24-hour Holter recordings (time- and frequency-domain indexes), and evaluated whether the different types of responses to tilting (vasodepressive versus cardioinhibitory) could be associated with different cardiac autonomic patterns. Twenty-three patients exhibited a positive response to tilting, which was vasodepressive in 11 patients and cardioinhibitory in 12 patients. All vasodepressive patients had a standard deviation of the averages of NN (SDANN) intervals in all 5-minute segments lower than 100 ms. Patients with vasodepressive syncope also had ignificantly lower values of RMSSD (the 24-hour square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals) than those with cardioinhibitory response, and lacked the day-night rhythm of the low frequency/high frequency ratio. However, only SDANN values correctly identified patients with vasodepressive response to tilting. We conclude that (1) the population of patients with vasovagal syncope is heterogeneous, (2) patients with vasodepressive syncope have a peculiar chronic autonomic profile as assessed by 24-hour heart rate variability analysis, and (3) the evaluation of the autonomic profile in 24-hour Holter recordings could be of value in the diagnosis of patients with syncope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ischaemic stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) due to occult atrial fibrillation (AF) may cause severe morbidity and mortality. Diagnosing occult AF can be challenging and there is no consensus regarding the optimal duration of screening. A 24-hour Holter electrocardiogram (ECG) is frequently employed to detect occult AF following ischaemic CVA., Objectives: Demonstration of occult AF detection rate using a 24-hour Holter ECG in a primary care setting with descriptive analyses of independent variables to compare AF detected and non-detected patients., Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study utilised primary care data and included patients 50 years and older with a new CVA or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) diagnosis followed by a 24-hour Holter examination within 6 months, between 01 January 2013 and 01 June 2019. The analyses included descriptive statistics comparing demographics and clinical characteristics in patients who had AF or Atrial Flutter (AFL) detection to those who did not., Results: Out of 5015 eligible patients, 66 (1.3%) were diagnosed with AF/AFL, with a number needed to screen of 88.5. Compared with those without AF/AFL detection, those diagnosed were older (75.42 ± 7.89 vs. 69.89 ± 9.88, p  = 0.050), had a higher prevalence of hypertension (80.3% vs. 66.8%, p  = 0.021) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) (71.2% vs. 44.2%, p  < 0.001)., Conclusion: 24-hour Holter has a low AF/AFL detection rate. Older persons and those with hypertension or CKD are more likely to be detected with AF/AFL using this method.