1.Association between Serum 25 (OH) Vitamin D Concentrations and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs) Activity
Vossoughinia Hassan ; Saadatnia Hassan ; Pournaghi Seyed-Javad ; Khosravi Ahmad ; Hatefi Asieh ; Sahebari Maryam ; Farrokhi Farid ; Abedini Siavash
The Medical Journal of Malaysia 2013;68(1):34-38
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are immune mediated
diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract. Several
environmental factors in concert with genetic
susceptibilities can trigger IBDs. Recently, one of the
important environmental factors contributing to the
development of autoimmune diseases is vitamin D (VitD)
deficiency. Furthermore, some new evidence points to VitD
deficiency and its receptor dysfunction as an underlying
factor for the emergence experimental IBDs. The aim of the
current study was to evaluate the correlation between serum
25(OH)D concentrations and IBD activity in patients with
ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.
Sixty patients with confirmed diagnosis of IBD were
recruited for a cross sectional study. Most of the identified confounders affecting serum VitD concentrations were excluded. Disease activity was assessed using validated questionnaires, including Truelove for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn Disease Activity Index (CDAI) for Crohn disease.
Serum 25(OH)D concentrations were determined by
chemiluminescent assay. Serum 25(OH)D≤10 (ng/ml) was
considered as VitD deficiency and 11≤25(OH)D<29(ng/ml) as
VitD insufficiency. Mean serum 25(OH)D value was 13.1 ± 11.1(ng/ml) in IBD patients. Almost 95% of patients were vitamin D insufficient or deficient. Forty one percent of IBD patients had active disease. VitD deficiency was not associated with IBD activity (p=0.23). However, VitD deficiency was significantly associated with a history of IBD related intestinal surgery (p=0.001). In conclusion, this cross-sectional prospective study suggested that there is no association between vitamin D deficiency and disease activity in a relatively small
number of IBD patients in a short period of time.