This study was aimed to investigate the associations between platelet number and 25(OH)D serum concentration in apparently healthy but overweight/obese subjects.

Subjects were enrolled at the first examination whether they were not taking any medication, including oral contraceptives or drugs for osteoporosis, and free of significant medical illnesses, except obesity. Exclusion criteria were history of endocrinological diseases (diabetes mellitus, hypo or hyperthyroidism, hypopituitarism, etc.), chronic inflammatory diseases, stable known hypertension, angina pectoris, stroke, transient ischemic attack, heart infarction, congenital heart disease, malignancies, chronic inflammatory diseases, renal and liver failure, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, heart failure, congenital heart diseases, minor and major stroke, and inherited thrombocytopenias and other major malignancies. subjects were examined by means of the medical history, hormonal, metabolic and routine hematochemical parameters. We provided for a clinical baseline evaluation that included extemporaneous ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and a physical assessment of body weight, Body Mass Index (BMI) and Waist Circumference (WC) as anthropometric parameters. To lead the statistical analysis, all sample was clusterized into three different groups according to the diagnostic condition of deficiency (<10 ng/mL), insufficiency (<20 ng/mL) and sufficiency (≥20 ng/mL) of vitamin D. We labelled each cluster as group 1, group 2 and group 3.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Overweight or obesity (BMI> 25 Kg/m2)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any kind of drug
• Hypertension
• Endocrine diseases (diabetes mellitus, hypo or hyperthyroidism, hypopituitarism, etc.),
• Chronic inflammatory diseases
• Renal failure
• Liver failure
• Angina pectoris
• Myocardial infarction and heart failure
• Genetic heart diseases
• Thrombocytopenias

Patients who came to the Outpatient Clinic of Nutrition at the National Institute of Gastroenterology "S. de Bellis," Research Hospital, Castellana Grotte, Italy.