Biochemistry of Fat Soluble Vitamins: Vitamin K Deficiency and Clinical manifestations
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Deficiency of Vitamin K
- Deficiency of Vitamin K is rare but can occur in conditions of malabsorption of lipids as in obstructive jaundice, chronic pancreatitis, sprue etc.
- Can also occur with prolonged antibiotic therapy & GI infections causing diarrheas’ will destroy the bacterial flora and can also lead to
vitamin K deficiency.
Clinical Manifestations of the Deficiency of Vitamin K
- Hemorrhagic disease of the newborn is attributed to
Vitamin K deficiency.- The newborns, especially the premature infants have relative Vitamin K deficiency due to the lack of hepatic stores, limited oral intake as breast milk has very low levels of Vitamin K (15 mg/liter), and there is absence of intestinal bacterial flora.
- It is often advised that preterm infants be given prophylactic doses of Vitamin K (1 mg Menadione).
- In children and adults, Vitamin K deficiency may be manifested as bruising tendency, ecchymotic patches, mucous membrane hemorrhage, post-traumatic bleeding and internal bleeding.
- Prolongation of Prothrombin time and delayed clotting time are characteristic of vitamin K deficiency.
- Measurement of Prothrombin time (PT) is taken as an index of liver function.
- When liver function is considerably lowered, prolongation of PT occurs due to deficient synthesis of the coagulation factors.
- In such cases, administration of vitamin fails to restore …
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