Vitamin D was significantly lower in people with recurrent transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica, and related inflammatory spinal diseases, researchers found.
On the other hand, there appears to be no link between the vitamin and idiopathic transverse myelitis, which does not recur, according to Michael Levy, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues.
The finding, from a retrospective analysis, is reminiscent of what has been seen in multiple sclerosis and other recurrent autoimmune illnesses, and may provide clues to the role vitamin D plays in immune regulation, Levy and colleagues argued online in Archives of Neurology.
Transverse myelitis, with symptoms including back pain and leg weakness, exhibits involvement of the myelin sheath that protects nerve fibers; between 75% and 90% of patients have nonrecurrent disease.
On the other hand, neuromyelitis optica and so-called neuromyelitis spectrum disorders affect the optic nerves and spinal cord and most patients have recurrent, rather than monophasic, disease. Neuromyelitis optica is considered to be a recurrent central nervous system disorder characterized by “longitudinally extensive (transverse myelitis) plus optic neuritis,” the authors noted.
Continued at Resource.