Research Information System
Journal of Clinical and Analytical Medicine, vol.6, no.4, pp.486-489, 2015 (Scopus, TRDizin)
Aim: Vitamin D deficiency in autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid ar-thritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS), whether an initiator cause or associated with disease activity is still wondered. The aim of our study is to investigate the association between serum vitamin D levels and disease activity in subjects with RA and AS which are known to be Th1 dominant diseases. Material and Method: The study included the data of 92 patients with RA, 100 patients with AS and 62 healthy controls, which were retrospec-tively obtained from the patient files. The age, gender, duration of the dis-ease, medications, levels of vitamin D, calcium, C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were recorded. Disease activities were evaluated by Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS28) in patients with RA and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Index (BASDAI) in patients with AS. Results: Vitamin D levels were low in all groups. In AS patients, there was no statis-tical negative correlation among vitamin D levels and BASDAI, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) (r=-0.059, p=0.560, r=-0.072, p=0.473, r=-0.112, p=0.268, respectively). In RA patients, there was also no significant negative correlation between vitamin D levels and DAS28 (r=-0.090, p=0.392). Discussion: In our study, low serum vitamin D levels were found in all groups, and it is suggested that vitamin D deficiency may be associated with the disease activity rather than the etiology of RA and AS.