Vitamin D deficiency in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in Suez canal university hospital

Abstract EN

Background : systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multi-system chronic inflammatory auto-immune disease that compromises multiple organs and unpredictable course and prognosis.

vitamin D deficiency is implicated as a potential environmental factor triggering some autoimmune disorders, including SLE.

aim : to improve the management of SLE patients and reduce disabilities arising as a consequence of vitamin D deficiency.

objectives : our objectives were to assess the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in SLE patients and its relation to disease activity and renal involvement in those patients.

patients and methods : we enrolled 72 SLE patients who fulfilled the revised classification criteria of the American college of rheumatology whose ages were above or equal to 16 from both genders and who visited the outpatient clinic or were admitted to the inpatient departments of the Suez canal university hospital.

they were subjected to full medical history, examination, SLE disease activity index–sledai-score assessment, and lab in-vestigations (CBC, C3, C4, ESR, urine analysis, 24-hour urine protein, and vitamin D.

results : the mean of vitamin d level was nearly 19 ng / ml ranging from 5 to 38 ng / ml and 55.6% of the patients showed deficient level (< 20 ng / ml).

our variables (disease activity, renal involvement, age, gen-der, BMI, and laboratory findings) were not correlated to vitamin d level except for disease du-ration which showed a strong negative relationship where vitamin d deficiency is remarkable when SLE duration exceeds 6 years (100%) "R = - 0.797 and p > 0.001".

conclusion : vitamin D deficiency is a common problem in SLE patients, also vitamin D deficiency was related to disease du-ration but not to disease activity or renal involvement.