Author Year Study design (sample size) Country (ethnicity) Age Intervention (follow-up) Findings Coronary artery calcification Manson et al. [72 ] 2010 Prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial (750 postmenopausal women from the WHI-CACS) U.S. (Caucasian, Africa Americans, Hispanic, and Asian) 50–59 years Calcium 500 mg ×2/day or calcium 500 mg + 25(OH)D 5
g twice daily or placebo (7 years) After follow-up, CAC measurements were similar in both groups also at multivariate analysis. Raggi et al. [73 ] 2011 Prospective randomized double-blind controlled trial (360 patients in haemodialysis from the ADVANCE trial) U.S. (Caucasian, Africa Americans, Hispanic, and Asian) Mean 61 years Cinecalcet (30–180 mg/day) + active vitamin D or vitamin D alone (20 weeks for titration and after 32 weeks of follow-up) After 52 weeks, treatment with cinecalcet significantly slowed vascular calcification (
) Endothelial dysfunction Sudgen et al. [74 ] 2008 Prospective randomized double-blind controlled trial (34 TDM2 patients) U.K. (not provided) Mean 64 years Ergocalciferol loading dose 100.000 U or placebo (8 weeks) Vitamin D supplementation improves FMD (
), in addition to reducing systolic BP (
) and increasing serum levels of 25(OH)D (
) Tarcin et al. [75 ] 2009 Longitudinal interventional (23 subjects with 25(OH)D < 75 nmol/L) Turkey (not provided) Stratified Ergocalciferol loading dose 300.000 U/monthly ×3 doses (3 months) Treatment significantly improved FMD (
) Witham et al. [76 ] 2010 Prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial (61 TDM2 patients) U.K. (not provided) Stratified Ergocalciferol loading dose 100.000 U or 200.000 U or placebo (8 and 16 weeks) Supplementation significantly raised serum 25(OH)D levels but failed to improve FMD. Shab-Bidar et al. [77 ] 2011 Prospective randomized double-blind controlled trial (100 TDM2 patients) Iran (not provided) 29–67 years Fortified diet with Ca++ 170 mg/or Ca++ 170 mg + 25(OH)D 12.5
g twice a day (12 weeks) Supplementation improved endothelial function evaluated through adjusted endothelin-1 (
) and MMP-9 (
) assay. Witham et al. [78 ] 2012 Prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial (34 TDM2 patients) U.K. (not provided) Stratified Ergocalciferol loading dose 100.000 or placebo (8 and 16 weeks) Supplementation significantly improves FMD at 8 weeks (
) but not at 16 weeks. Stricker et al. [79 ] 2012 Prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial (76 patients with PAD) Swiss (Caucasian) Stratified Ergocalciferol loading dose 100.000 or placebo (1 months) Supplementation significantly raised serum 25(OH)D levels but failed to improve arterial stiffness. Yiu et al. [80 ] 2013 Prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial (100 TDM2 patients with 25(OH)D < 75 nmol/L) Hong Kong (not provided) Mean 65 years 25(OH)D 125 μ g/day or placebo (12 weeks) Supplementation significantly raised serum 25(OH)D and Ca++ concentration in addition to decreasing PTH. However, the study failed to improve vascular function assessed by FMD circulating EPCs and PWV.