Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among Rheumatoid Arthritis patients in Wasit Province / Iraq

Prevalence of vitamin D

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D is one of the fat soluble vitamins, which upon its chemical conversion in
the liver and kidney gives 25(OH) D, an indicator of vitamin D status in the serum. This vitamin
plays multiple functions in the human body. Among these functions is that it is considered as a
regulatory factor in human immunity, Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a most common disease of
connective tissue and is considered as a long-lived inflammatory disease of joints. It is a common
chronic systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease.
Aim of the study: The present study focused on measurement of the prevalence of vitamin D
deficiency in RA Iraqi patients who live in Wasit Province.
Method: The total number of the patients enrolled in the study were 653 of both gender and
different ages. Their fasting blood samples were collected during the period of January-September
2018. Vitamin D level as 25 hydroxy vitamin D(25-OHD) was measured in the patient's serum
using Roche Cobas e 411 analyzer and Roche Elecsys vitamin D total II assay (Roche
Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany).
Results: The percentage of the females who had RA disease were found to be higher than the
males among the patients group enrolled in the present study. High percentage (35.5%) of the
studied RA patients were found to have vitamin D severe, deficiency (vitamin D level<10
ng/mL), while (19.8%) were vitamin D deficient, (8.7%) were with vitamin D insuffiency and
9.2% of them had a sufficient level of vitamin D. Furthermore, the female’s patients appeared to
have higher levels of vitamin D deficiency in comparison to the males. Moreover, vitamin D
levels in the serum of RA patients with age range of 41-50 years were higher than those with
other age ranges. While those with age range of more than 61 years had the lowest. Conclusion:
The results indicated that vitamin D severe deficiency is high in the studied RA patients (43.5%)
and its prevalence is high in women patients, as well as in patients with age of less than 41 years
and those with age higher than 61year. Meantime the male patients have higher vitamin D than
the female among all age groups.