An understanding of interlink of Vitamin D with Tuberculosis- A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most prevalent health disorder in developing nations and is linked with decreased immunity. Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins required to boost immune response as it is required to maintain innate immune response via its actions on TLRs and macrophages. Risk of Tuberculosis has been associated with decrease level of vitamin D in serum in various studies. Despite of these studies some discrepancies have been shown in different studies conducted in different regions which further potentiates the role of various factors like diet, ethnicity, and seasonal variations influencing the prevalence of T.B in vitamin D deficient and non-deficient population. This study has been conducted to evaluate and establish the link of serum vitamin D in TB and non TB population residing in Mathura region of U.P. Total studied population was 80. 40 participants were taken in patient group with newly diagnosed Tuberculosis both pulmonary and extrapulmonary and 40 were enrolled in healthy control group. Serum sample was collected twice first before the start of treatment in patient group and then after the three months of effective treatment initiation.Among the two groups i.e., control and patient serum level of vitamin D in patient group was found to be significantly low as compared to the control group (22.66±15.17 vs73.03±25.6 ng/mL: P<0.001)Moreover it was seen in this study that serum vitamin D level was low in extrapulmonary tuberculosis as compared to pulmonary T.B, but this is statistically insignificant (P=0.397). Likewise when serum level of vitamin D was compared before start of treatment in patient group and after treatment no significant difference was seen. (P = 0.807). Linear regression analysis ruled out any significant link in serum levels of vitamin D when matching was done including age, gender, site of tuberculosis and after treatment onset criteria P≥0.68.Healthy population has higher serum levels of vitamin D as compared to patients with tuberculosis.

Comparative Study of Vitamin D Levels in Newly Diagnosed Tuberculosis and a Normal Population

“…The application of the Mann-Whitney test indicated a significant statistical difference (p-value of 0.029) between the TB cases and the non-TB populations. Like our study, other studies also revealed low vitamin D levels in the TB group compared with the control group [13,14,20,[22][23][24].…”

“…Like our study, other studies showed vitamin D deficiency more in cases than controls [19][20][21][22]. In a few studies, vitamin D deficiency was seen only in cases but none in controls [13,14,23,24].…”

“…Like our study, Sariata et al found that vitamin D deficiency was more prevalent in pulmonary TB [13]. In Soleimani, Alireza et al and Sethiya B et al's studies, vitamin D deficiency was more prevalent in extrapulmonary TB than pulmonary TB [15,23].…”