Role of vitamin D in activity and severity of inflammatory bowel disease in Egyptian patients

Background: and aim Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) comprise ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), which are chronical and recurrent disorders that affect the gastrointestinal tract. Diagnosing IBD requires a combination of clinical findings, inflammatory laboratory markers, imaging findings, and endoscopic biopsies. Vitamin D deficiency is generally higher in patients with CD than UC and usually higher than that of the general population. This study aims to evaluate the role of vitamin D in activity and severity of inflammatory bowel disease in Egyptian patients. Methods: Our study was conducted on 62 IBD (UC and CD) naïve patients and 31 normal persons from the GI endoscopy unit of internal medicine department, Menoufia university hospital during the period between November 2021 and June 2023. All participants were subjected to history taking, clinical examination and routine lab investigations. Serum vitamin D level was also measured. Results: This study showed highly significant difference between studied groups as regard serum vitamin D level with low level of vitamin D in IBD patients. Vitamin D is associated with different IBD activity status. Conclusion: Vitamin D is associated with different IBD activity status and its deficiency is highly prevalent among IBD patients.