Amara Amin, Naima Luqman, Sumiya Ashraf, Uzma Almas.
Vitamin D deficiency in patients with pemphigus vulgaris: a cross sectional study.
J Pak Assoc Derma Jan ;33(1):43-8.

Background  Several autoimmune disorders have been correlated to vitamin D deficiency, including their incidence and severity, and has been identified as a factor that may cause or worsen autoimmunity.   Objective The main objective was the assessment of vitamin D deficiency in pemphigus vulgaris patients.   Methods A total of 76 patients with pemphigus vulgaris, 20 to 50 years of age of either gender were included. Patients with chronic renal failure or chronic liver disease, acid peptic disease and diabetes mellitus were excluded.  Blood samples were collected from patients and forwarded to the institution's pathology department for vitamin D testing.   Results Mean age was 34.54±6.70 years. Majority of the patients i.e. 47 (61.84%) had age between 20 to 35 years. Out of 76, 39 (51.32%) patients were males and 37 (48.68%) were females with male to female ratio of 1.1:1. Mean duration of disease was 6.41±2.48 months. Mean BMI was 26.19±4.57 kg/m2. Frequency of vitamin D deficiency in pemphigus vulgaris patients was seen in 55 (72.37%) patients while 21 (27.63%) have shown no vitamin D deficiency.   Conclusion This study concluded that there is high frequency of vitamin-D deficiency in pemphigus vulgaris patients.

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