Objective:
Vitamin D is a key regulator of calcium homeostasis and has anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. Active vitamin D has a direct effect on T cells and antigen-presenting cells. It also suppresses the differentiation of B cells to plasma cells and inhibits immunoglobulin production. Vitamin D supplementation is associated with a favorable outcome in chronic inflammatory diseases. In this study, we aimed to determine serum vitamin D levels in patients with acute toxic, ischemic, or viral hepatitis and whether the levels had an effect on clinical progression or mortality in patients with acute hepatitis.
Methods:
Forty-eight patients (26 men and 22 women) and 35 controls (16 men and 19 women) aged >18 years who were diagnosed as having acute hepatitis and hospitalized in the Internal Medicine Department were enrolled. To determine serum 25-hydroxy (OH) vitamin D levels, two fasting blood samples, first in the initial 24–48 h following hospitalization and second on the day of discharge, were obtained from the participants. The SPSS Statistics v21.0 software was used for the quantitative evaluation of data.
Results:
Serum vitamin D levels were significantly lower in the patient group (10.0±8.7) than in the control group (31.5±12.2), but no significant difference was detected in serum vitamin D levels among the patients. Serum vitamin D levels, except in patients with viral hepatitis, were low at discharge. Serum vitamin D levels were lower than the cutoff values in two patients with early mortality.
Conclusion:
We demonstrated that serum vitamin D levels had no effect on clinical progression of acute hepatitis. Other prospective studies with large sample sizes are required to determine whether serum vitamin D levels can be used to predict clinical progression or mortality.
Keywords: Acute hepatitis, vitamin D, clinical progression, mortality