Association between Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels and Severity of Disease Among Iraqi Patients with Psoriasis A Hospital-Based Case-Control Study
Abstract
Psoriasis is a chronic disease causes long life burden on the affected patients. Severe disease form associated with worsening of patient’s health and most aspect of their life. Therefore, maintaining patients at less severe or minimal to mild disease can improve their quality of life and mental health. Vitamin D deficiency is currently representing pandemic all over the world, and so many studies conducted to correlate the Vitamin D level with different diseases including psoriasis and proved the association between lower Vitamin D levels and more severe form of the disease. Our objective to assess the association between Vitamin D levels and the severity of psoriasis based on the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). We conducted a case-control study during a period of 16 months at Al-Najaf Teaching Hospital included 100 psoriasis patients and 100 apparently health controls who met the inclusion criteria. Our findings showed higher frequency of Vitamin D deficiency in psoriasis patients compared to controls. Vitamin D levels were lower in psoriasis patients in all aspect of severity (mild, moderate and severe) compared to healthy controls. A significant inverse correlation was found between Vitamin D level and PASI score in psoriasis patients and vitamin D was a strong predictor of severe psoriasis with high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of more than 90%. We recommend routine assessment of vitamin D status in psoriasis patients particularly those with moderate to severe disease form also, we recommend conducting multicenter studies with larger sample size for more evaluation, comparison and precise conclusions
Keywords: Psoriasis, Severity, PASI, Vitamin D, Iraqi patients
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