الفهرس 
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Abstract
Children with heart failure represented 10% to 33% of all cardiac admissions. Pediatric heart failure may be encountered with or without the presence of structural heart disease and at any age from fetal life to late adolescence. It may arise from diverse causes. The most common causes of CHF in infancy are congenital heart diseases. Beyond infancy, myocardial dysfunction of various etiologies are important causes of CHF (Lipshultz et al., 2013).
Vitamin D has garnered considerable attention in recent years as a potential player in a number of diseases. A growing body of work has shed light on the significance of vitamin D insufficiency in chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease (Holick, 2007).
Ionized calcium plays an important role in cardiac excitation contraction coupling,so reduction in the ionized calcium level may affect ventricular contraction (Usyal et al., 1999).
There are isolated case reports of hypocalcemic-dilated cardiomyopathy resulting in heart failure due to nutritional vitamin D deficiency (Mustafa et al., 1999; Gulati et al., 2001; Carlton et al., 2004 and Price et al., 2003).
Maiya et al., (2008) reviewed the prevalence of pediatric heart failure in paediatric cardiology units of southeast England and determined the prognosis. They found that vitamin D deficiency and consequent hypocalcaemia are seen in association with severe and life-threatening infant heart failure. That no infant or mother was receiving the recommended vitamin supplementation highlights the need for adequate provision of vitamin D to ethnic minority populations.