Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2015; 21(4): 1284-1291
Published online Jan 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i4.1284
Vitamin D status and viral response to therapy in hepatitis C infected children
Azza A Eltayeb, Madleen Adel A Abdou, Amal M Abdel-aal, Mostafa H Othman
Azza A Eltayeb, Children University Hospital, Assiut University, 71515 Assiut, Egypt
Madleen Adel A Abdou, Amal M Abdel-aal, Assiut University Hospital, 71515 Assiut, Egypt
Mostafa H Othman, Department of Radiology, Assiut University hospital, 71515 Assiut, Egypt
Author contributions: Eltayeb AA participated in the sequence alignment, in the design and coordination of the study, and performed the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript; Abdou MAA carried out the laboratory studies and participated in the sequence alignment; Abdel-aal AM carried out the laboratory studies and participated in the design of the study; Othman MH participated in the design of the study and the DEXA work in the study; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Azza A Eltayeb, Assistant Professor of Pediatric ICU, Children University Hospital, Assiut University, Qesm Than Asyut, 71515 Assiut, Egypt. azeltayeb@hotmail.com
Telephone: +2-10-06863277 Fax: +2-88-2368371
Received: June 16, 2014
Peer-review started: June 17, 2014
First decision: July 21 ,2014
Revised: August 20, 2014
Accepted: September 29, 2014
Article in press: September 30, 2014
Published online: January 28, 2015
Processing time: 224 Days and 18.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Does vitamin D supplementation improves the viral response in hepatitis C infection? Previous studies raised the possibility that disease progression is associated with higher levels of vitamin D, and thus vitamin D supplementation does not have a role in chronic hepatitis C patients. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of vitamin D deficiency among Egyptian hepatitis C virus-infected children, with assessment of bone status by measuring calcium, parathormone and alkaline phosphatase levels, and bone mineral density and to evaluate the role of vitamin D supplementation in improving the viral response of these patients.