Prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in patients of Chronic Hepatitis C.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine and compare vitamin D status in chronic hepatitis C patients and normal healthy matching controls. Study Design: A case control study. Setting: A private clinic of Peshawar. Period: 1^st November 2015 to 31^st January 2016. Material & Methods: Fifty clinically normal young adults and fifty non cirrhotic chronic hepatitis C patients were included in the study. Vitamin D was determined by electro chemiluminescence. Student t test was used to analyze the data in SPSS version 21. Results: The mean age of the study population was 30.68+ 5. Vitamin D deficiency was divided into three categories. 21% of the study population had severe vitamin D deficiency, 33% had mild to moderate deficiency and 46% of the study population had normal levels. Females population were more vitamin D deficient as compared to males (p-value<0.05). Vitamin D levels were comparatively decreased in the non cirrhotic chronic hepatitis C patients. Statistically significant (p value <0.05) results were obtained while comparing means of serum vitamin D of non-cirrhotic chronic hepatitis C patients with healthy matching controls. Conclusion: It is concluded from this study that a significant number of apparently healthy individual have low vitamin D level and some even fall in the severely deficient group without any active complains. Patients with chronic hepatitis C had rather increased levels of vitamin D as compared to normal healthy adults There might be some genetic factors underlying which affects the availability of Vitamin D.