Comparative study on hypocalcemia and maternal serum calcium level in tertiary care hospital in Chennai

Background: Hypocalcemia occurs as a manifestation of nutritional deficiency of calcium and vitamin D. Deficiency of calcium in the diet has been identified as a leading cause of nutritional rickets. Infants less than 6 months are reliant on mothers for their daily calcium requirements. Calcium has a wide range of biological functions in both the ionized form as well as the bound complexes. It also plays an important role in skeletal mineralization. Aim of the study: To rule out the prevalence of hypocalcemia in the mothers of the infants and to establish if there was an association between the infant and maternal serum calcium. Materials and methods: Totally 50 children who were admitted in pediatric ward between Ages 1 Months to 6 months were assessed. A standard questionnaire was administered and venous blood samples collected from the mother-infant pairs. The samples were analyzed for calcium and albumin and corrected calcium levels calculated. Results: A total of 93 mother-infant pairs were screened. 94(78.3%) of these gave samples which were analyzed. The mean age of the infants sampled was 3.5 months. The mean age of the mothers was 27.2 years with a standard deviation of 5.8 years. 78 (83%) infants were born at term and 16 infants (17%) were born preterm. 58 of 93 infants (62.4%) were exclusively breastfeeding whereas 35 of 93 infants (37.6%) were breastfeeding but not exclusive. Prevalence of hypocalcemia was 34% in the infants with 95% CI of 29.4-45%. Prevalence of hypocalcemia in the mothers of the infants was 39.4% with a 95% CI of 29.8. There was no statistically significant association between hypocalcemia in the mother and infants. OR 1.4 (95% CI 0.6-3.4) and P= 0.447. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of hypocalcemia in breastfeeding infants as well as in lactating women. However, there is no significant association between maternal and infant hypocalcemia. The recorded prevalence values .from the general population is quite high and were found to be due to dietary deficiency of both calcium and vitamin D. The values are much higher than those obtained during our study. The study population is ideal as it has taken into account the general population.