Published in:
01-09-2016 | Original Contributions
Severe Vitamin D Deficiency Is Not Associated with Liver Damage in Morbidly Obese Patients
Published in: Obesity Surgery | Issue 9/2016
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Background and Aims
A deficiency in vitamin D could be deleterious during chronic liver diseases. However, contradictory data have been published in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The aim of the study was to compare the blood level of 25 hydroxy vitamin D (25-OH vitamin D) with the severity of liver lesions, in a large cohort of morbidly obese patients.
Patients and Method
Three hundred ninety-eight morbidly obese patients had a liver biopsy. The non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) Clinical Research Network Scoring System Definition and Scores were used. 25-OH vitamin D was evaluated with a Diasorin®Elisa Kit. Logistic regression analyses were performed to obtain predictive factors of the severity of liver histology.
Results
20.6 % of patients had NASH. The stage of fibrosis was F0 12.9 %, F1 57.36 %, F2 25.32 %, F3 (bridging fibrosis) 3.88 %, and F4 (cirrhosis) 0.52 %. The 25-OH vitamin D level inversely correlated to the NAS (r = 0.12 and p = 0.01) and to steatosis (r = 0.14 and p = 0.007); however, it was not associated with the presence of NASH. The level of vitamin D was significantly lower in patients with significant fibrosis compared to those without (15.9 (11.1–23.5) vs 19.6 (13.7–24.7) ng/ml, p = 0.02). There was an inverse correlation between the severity of fibrosis and the values of 25-OH vitamin D (r = 0.12 and p = 0.01).
In a logistic regression analysis, no parameters were independently associated with the severity of fibrosis except the presence of steatohepatitis (1.94 (1.13–3.35) p = 0.017).
Conclusion
Low levels of 25-OH vitamin D were not independently associated with liver damage in morbidly obese patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD).