Assessment of 25-hydroxyvitamin D level in patients with behçet’s disease and its correlation with disease activity and severity

Abstract EN

Objective The aim of this study was to assess the level of vitamin D in Behçet’s disease (BD) patients and in healthy controls, and to correlate its level with clinical and laboratory data as well as disease activity and severity.

Patients and methods Forty patients with BD and 40 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls participated in this study.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] was estimated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in both patients and controls.

Behçet’s Disease Current Activity Form 2006 was used to assess disease activity.

Disease severity was evaluated in BD patients.

Results The mean 25(OH)D level in BD patients was lower than that in the control group, but with no statistical significance (P>0.05).

The frequency of vitamin D deficiency was (27.5%)inBDpatientswhereas in controls, itwas (7.5%), andthe frequency of normal vitamin D level in BD was (2.5%) whereas in controls, it was (15%); the difference between the patients and controls was statistically significant (P=0.006).

We found a significant negative correlation between the serumvitamin D level in BD patients and disease duration (r=−3.38; P=0.015).

No significant correlation was found between the 25(OH)D level and disease activity ofBDpatients (P>0.05).

According to the level of vitamin D, we classified our patients into three groups: normal (>30 ng/ml), insufficient (10–30 ng/ml), and deficient (<10 ng/ml) vitamin D level.

A statistically significant difference was found between the three groups of BD patients with regard to the serum calcium level (P=0.03) and disease severity (P=0.028).

Conclusion Vitamin D was lower in BD patients than in the healthy control group; hence, assessment of its level should be carried out in all patients with BD.

Furthermore, vitamin D could be used as a new marker for disease severity in BD.-