Koreans with Lupus were 4X more likely to be vitamin D insufficient Mar 2010
Rheumatol Int. 2010 Mar 30. [Epub ahead of print]
Vitamin D may not be a good marker of disease activity in Korean patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.
Kim HA, Sung JM, Jeon JY, Yoon JM, Suh CH.
Department of Allergy and Rheumatology, and BK21 Division of Cell Transformation and Restoration, Ajou University School of Medicine, Woncheon-dong San 5, Youngtong-gu, Suwon, 443-721, Korea.
Vitamin D is a pleiotrophic hormone with immunoregulatory properties. Low levels of vitamin D have been discovered in various autoimmune diseases. Here, we investigated serum vitamin D levels in Koreans with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and examined whether levels correlate with disease activity of SLE. Blood samples were prospectively collected from patients with SLE (n = 104) and normal controls (NC, n = 49) during the spring from March to May 2008. The level of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D3) was measured by radioimmunoassay. 
The serum 25(OH)D3 levels of patients with SLE (42.49 +/- 15.08 ng/ml) were significantly lower than NC (52.72 +/- 15.19 ng/ml, P < 0.001). Additionally, 17 patients with SLE (16.3%) had vitamin D insufficiency, while two NC had vitamin D insufficiency (4.1%). 
The risk of vitamin D insufficiency was 4.6-fold increased in SLE (P = 0.032). The serum 25(OH)D3 levels, adjusted with BMI, were positively correlated only with hemoglobin (beta = 0.256, P = 0.018) and serum complement 3 (beta = 0.365, P = 0.002). Serum vitamin D levels were lower, and vitamin D insufficiency was more common in Korean patients with SLE, however, our study demonstrated that vitamin D levels might not be a good marker of disease activity.
PMID: 20352222 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]