Interplay between vitamin D status and antiviral therapy among chronic hepatitis C Egyptian patients.

Vitamin D has been shown to play an important immunomodulatory role; deficiency of vitamin D has been recently associated to the lack of response to antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis C patients. This study evaluated the interrelationship between serum level of vitamin D and early response to antiviral therapy in Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection. A total of 45 patients with chronic HCV infection who received antiviral treatment (Pegylated interferon and Ribavirin), their vitamin D serum level was assessed once at the start of treatment and 12 weeks later, when the EVR was determine by Quantitative HCV-RNA by PCR. The results showed that vitamin D status has no correlation with viral load and hepatitis activity by biopsy and without significant association between vitamin D deficiency and the antiviral therapy response. However, there was significance improvement in level of vitamin D after 12 weeks of receiving the antiviral therapy of HCV.