الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 129 |  |  |
| | | from | 129 | | |
Abstract
Neonatal sepsis is defined as a clinical syndrome characterized by signs and symptoms of infection with or without accompanying bacteremia in the first month of life. It encompasses various systemic infections of the newborn such as septicaemia, meningitis, pneumonia, arthritis, osteomyelitis etc., but it does not include superficial infections like thrush. Vitamin D may enhance the innate immune response by induction of cathelicidin (LL-37), an endogenous antimicrobial peptide produced by macrophages and neutrophils. Thus, the relationship between vitamin D status and LL-37 production may be of importance for host immunity.
Current vitamin D intake recommendations during pregnancy range from 400 to 600 IU per day to 1500 to 2000 IU per day according to the Institute of Medicine report and Endocrine Society report, respectively.
Recently, two new randomized controlled studies showed that a daily intake of higher (4000 IU per day) vitamin D resulted with higher circulating 25-OHD levels in pregnant women compared with low doses (200 IU per day and 2000 IU per day).
Therefore, it was suggested that higher vitamin D supplementation might be required for prevention of hypovitaminosis D and achievement of normal circulating 25-OHD levels (40 to 60 ng ml-1) during pregnancy, which would also decrease the incidence of co-morbidities of pregnancy.
Hence present study was planned to evaluate the effect of vitamin D levels on early-onset sepsis (EOS) in term infants admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) of the Pediatric Department at El Shohada Central Hospital, Menoufia governate, Egypt.