Vitamin D improves viral response in hepatitis C genotype 2-3 naïve patients

Table 1 Baseline demographic, clinical, and virological characteristics of all patients

Baseline demographics	Peg/RBV (n = 30)	Vitamin D + Peg/RBV (n = 20)	P value
Age (yr)	45 ± 10	48 ± 14	0.3
Males (%)	60	65	0.2
BMI (kg/m2)	26 ± 3	30 ± 6	0.02
HCV virus genotype: 2/3	17/13	11/9	0.01
SVR rate genotype: 2/3	90%/64%	100%/89%	0.01
Vitamin D (ng/mL)	19 ± 6	20 ± 8	0.1
Week 12 baseline	-	34 ± 11
Baseline HCV RNA	40%	65%	0.01
> 400 000 IU/mL)
Baseline ALT (U/L)	50 ± 16	48 ± 10	0.1
Ethnicity (Russian/Jewish/Arabic)	26/3/1	16/2/2	0.1
CRP	0.5 ± 1.0	0.4 ± 0.5	0.3

BMI: Body mass index; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; SVR: Sustained viral response; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; CRP: C-reactive protein; Peg/RBV: Pegylated interferon α combined with ribavirin.

Table 2 Viral response, vitamin D levels and biomarkers of inflammation, insulin resistance and oxidative stress in all patients

	OR	95% CI	P value
Received vitamin D supplementation (yes vs no)	3.0	2.0-4.9	< 0.001
Base line vitamin D	2.2	1.1-4.3	0.01
(< 15 or > 15 ng/mL )
Genotype	2.0	1.2-3.8	0.01
(2 vs 3)
High viral load	2.8	1.2-4.0	0.001
(< 400 000 or > 400 000 IU/mL)
Baseline CRP	1.0	0.5-1.9	0.5
(< 0.5 or > 0.5 mg/dL)
BMI > 30 (kg/m2)	2.6	0.8-3.5	0.01
(yes vs no)

CRP: C-reactive protein; BMI: Body mass index; OR: Odds ratio.