Vitamin D Level and Disease Activity in Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is thought to aggravate juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) activity. Aim of the work: To assess serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH) D] level in Egyptian children with JIA and correlate its level with subtypes of JIA and disease activity scoring. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that included 70 children with JIA of one year or less disease duration and 40 apparently healthy control children. Disease activity was measured using Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28) for polyarticular and oligoarticular JIA. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH) D] was measured using Enzyme Linked Immuno- Sorbent Assay technique. Results: Serum 25 (OH) D was significantly lower in JIA patients (mean ±SD= 17.32± 9.7 ng/mL) than in the control group (mean ± SD= 27.9± 7.4 ng/mL) (p-value =0.001). Serum 25(OH) D levels correlated inversely with the number of affected joints (r= - 0.122, p =0.316). Another inverse correlation with severity score was noted (r= - 0.2, p=0.098) but it was not statistically significant. It did not correlate with age at onset of disease (r=-0.2, p=0.096) or gender (r=-0.105, p=0.387) or duration of disease (r=-0.038, p=0.754). Conclusion: Serum levels of 25(OH) D were lower in patients with JIA disease. Serum vitamin D levels inversely correlated with number of affected joints, but not severity of JIA. Larger studies are needed to confirm the relation between vitamin D and JIA disease activity.

Keywords

• disease activity
• egyptian children
• juvenile idiopathic arthritis
• vitamin d
• [25 (oh) d]