| Summary: | INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection continues as a global health problem. In vitamin-D deficiency, which has an immunomodulating effect, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis progression and viral replication have been increased. In our study, we aimed to examine the relationship between vitamin-D and liver histopathology in chronic HBV patients. METHODS: 137 patients with chronic HBV diagnosis from the outpatient clinic of our hospital between September/2017-November/2019 were included in the study. The demographic data, vitamin-D levels, histopathological data, accompanying comorbid diseases, medications and previous operations were recorded. The relationship between fibrosis, inflammation level and vitamin-D was analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 137 patients, 62(45.2%) women, were included in the study. As a result of liver biopsy; while 25(18.2%) patients had no fibrosis, 77(56.2%) patients had mild fibrosis and 35(25.6%) patients had significant fibrosis. It was observed that age increased with increasing fibrosis-stage (p<0.001). As the level of fibrosis increases, AST, GGT, ALP, total direct bilirubin increase (p<0.001). Albumin, leukocyte, hemoglobin, platelet values decrease as fibrosis increases (p<0.001). There was no relationship between vitamin-D levels and fibrosis. While histological activity index (HAI)<6 in 63(61.7%) patients, HAI was found to be 6-18 in 39(38.3%) patients. Low vitamin-D was found to be significantly associated with the HAI index (p=0.026). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We think that there should be an increase in the awareness of physicians in order to prevent pathological conditions secondary to the deficiency of vitamin-D, which prevents inflammation in the liver by decreasing the inflammation in the liver due to its immunomodulating function.
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