Vitamin D status in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disease where chronic inflammation and tissue or organ damage is observed. Due to various suspected causes, inadequate levels of vitamin D (a steroid hormone with immunomodulatory effects) has been reported in patients with SLE, however, contradictory. AIMS The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the serum levels of vitamin D in patients with SLE in compared to healthy controls. METHODS PubMed, SCOPUS, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar electronic databases were searched systematically without restricting the languages and year (up to March 2, 2019) and studies were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Mean difference (MD) along with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used and the analyses were carried…