Dr Kristy Yap |
Published earlier this month in Lupus Science &
Medicine, lead researcher Dr Kristy Yap, MBBS from the Centre for
Inflammatory Diseases in the School
of Clinical Sciences reported her findings in the first study to examine
SLE disease in the Southern Hemisphere.
SLE, also known as lupus, is a severe, incurable and debilitating multisystem
autoimmune disease. It is the most
common autoimmune disease, affecting at least 5 million people worldwide, and
is predominantly diagnosed in young women.
The longitudinal study examined the disease activity and
vitamin D levels of lupus patients who attended the Monash
Medical Centre Lupus Clinic between 2007 and 2013.
“We found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in our
cohort,” said lead author Dr Kristy Yap.
“Significantly, over a quarter of our patients recorded low
vitamin D levels, keeping with reports from other parts of the world, including
Asia and Europe.”
Demonstrating an inverse association between vitamin D
levels and lupus disease activity, the research shows that increasing vitamin D
levels correlates with lower disease activity in lupus patients.
“Future studies
should include randomised trials which focus on the clinical effect of vitamin
D supplementation in lupus,” said Head of the Monash Lupus Clinic and chief
investigator in the Lupus and
Arthritis Research Group, Dr Alberta Hoi.
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