Clinical significance of peripheral blood vitamin D levels in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus / 中国医师进修杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To determine the levels of vitamin D in the peripheral blood of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE).Methods Seventy-eight cases of SLE were selected as SLE group,42 cases of chronic nephritis (CN) were as CN group,and 40 cases of healthy persons were as control group.Vitamin D levels were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay.The correlation of vitamin D levels in patients with SLE and 24 h urinary protein excretion,SLE disease activity (SLEDAI) score,anti-ds-DNA antibodies,complement C3 were analyzed,and the relationships between vitamin D levels and kidney damage were estimated.Results The vitamin D levels in SLE group were (13.3 ± 6.2) μ g/L,significantly lower than those in CN group [(21.4 ± 9.7) μ g/L] and control group [(20.8 ± 9.5) μ g/L] (P ＜ 0.05),and the difference was not statistically significant between CN group and control group (P ＞ 0.05).The vitamin D levels in SLE and lupus nephritis (LN) patients were significantly lower than those in SLE and non-LN patients [(9.8 ±6.1) μg/L vs.(15.9 ±7.8) μg/L,P ＜0.05].Vitamin D levels in SLE patients were negatively correlated with SLEDAI score,anti-ds-DNA antibodies and 24 h urinary protein excretion (r =-0.712,-0.682,-0.769,P ＜ 0.05),and were positively correlated with complement C3(r =0.608,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The vitamin D levels in SLE patients decrease significantly and have close relationship with disease activity.It can not only reflect disease activity,but also act as a useful marker to predict visceral involvement.