Vitamin D Status in Newly Diagnosed Celiac Disease Patients

Abstract

Celiac disease is an inflammatory disorder involving the small bowel, in addition to other organs. An inappropriate immune response to dietary gluten mainly in genetically predisposed individuals lies behind the persistent inflammation of the mucosa lining the proximal small bowel. Malabsorption in celiac disease patients lead to deficiencies in a number of minerals and vitamins. Among the affected vitamins is vitamin D. The present study aimed to figure out the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in celiac disease patients and investigate whether any vitamin D deficiency could associate with the level of autoantibodies. Forty-six early diagnosed celiac disease patients (11 males and 35 females) were consecutively recruited from Special Nursing Hospital \ Baghdad, during the period from July 2018 to February 2019. Twenty apparently healthy subjects were also recruited to serve as a control group. Age distribution of patients showed that 43.7% of patients were between 10 and 20 years old. On the other hand, 6 (13%), 1 (2.1%) and 4 (8.6%) patients were in the age groups 20-30, 30-40 and 40-50 years respectively. Female patients were more than male patients (66 and 34% respectively). Celiac disease patients had a significantly lower level of vitamin D in comparison with the control (14.3 ±9.9 and 68± 4 ng/ml respectively). In addition, 71.73% of celiac disease patients had vitamin D deficiency, 23.91% had vitamin D insufficiency, while 4.34% of celiac disease patients had vitamin D sufficiency. On the other hand, 100% of control subjects had vitamin D sufficiency. Nevertheless, no statistical difference in the level of vitamin D was found between female and male patients (15.3±10.08 and 12.58±8.9 ng/ml respectively). It can be concluded that vitamin D is significantly decreased in patients with celiac disease.