Serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in hepatitis C patients in Northern Norway. A retrospective cohort study.

Abstract

The aim of this study was primarily to describe the vitamin D status in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, followed up at the University Hospital of Northern Norway in Tromsø (UNN), and to study if there were any associations between vitamin D status, the level of liver enzymes, viral load, liver fibrosis, liver inflammation and sustained virological response to treatment. Additionally, we would provide a more general description of the HCV infected population in our region. This was a retrospective cohort study, including 107 patients. The mentioned parameters were reclaimed from the computer journal system of UNN, and subsequently plotted in a spread sheet. We gave both a demographic description and did statistical analysis, using the computer program SPSS. We found the HCV infected patients to have somewhat lower levels of vitamin D than the general Northern Norwegian population. Higher degree of inflammation tended to be related to lower levels of vitamin D, but not of statistically significance. Vitamin D and IL28B did show no significant correlation. The level of vitamin D is of interest for HCV infected patients, possibly positively influencing the progress of disease and effect of treatment. Therefore prevention of vitamin D deficiency in this group is of importance.