Abstract

Recent studies proofed vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency had been involved in the emerging of many autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. The study aim was to evaluate vitamin D3 serum level in RA Babylon province patients and the relationship with BMI and progressive of this disease. A case-control study was conducted in a private OZONE medical center of rheumatology and physical treatment, Babylon province, Iraq. A total of 30 serum samples of Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) cases were enrolled and compared with 30 serum samples of apparently healthy control. The serum level of vitamin D was detected for all study samples by VIDAS® system from bio Mérieux, French. A total of 30 include 11 males and 19(63.4%) females divided into three groups of deficiency sufficiency and insufficiency. The age (years) mean ±SD were 47.7 ±12.06, 47.03 ±12.39 for RA patients and control respectively. The BMI (kg/m2) mean ±SD was 37.08 ±4.6714, 33.506 ±4.6059 for RA and control respectively, and the obesity was significant in RA patients (P=0.004). The number frequency of the two study groups was appeared significant (P< 0.0001, P=0.0003) in both categories; deficiency and normal vitamin D respectively, while insufficient vitamin D did not reveal significant differences between both RA and control. The overall serum level means ±SD was 17.63± 10.61, 33.3±12.73 for RA patient (n=30) and healthy control (n=30) respectively, and appeared high significance (P

Key words: Vitamin D, autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis RA, BMI.