Vitamin D status and viral response to therapy in hepatitis C infected children.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

The study group was 33 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are children and teenagers, both men and women.

Sixty-six children aged from 7-14 years (mean ± SD, 11.17±2.293) diagnosed with HCV infection were matched to 28 healthy controls.

All cases received conventional therapy, and only 33 patients received vitamin D supplementation.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Serum levels of 25 (OH) D3, calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and plasma level of parathormone were measured.

Quantitative PCR for HCV was performed Bone density was determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Alkaline Phosphatase, Antiviral Agents, Biomarkers, Bone Density, Calcifediol, Calcium and Case-Control Studies.

Author keywords: Children, Hepatitis C, Viral response and Vitamin D.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 33 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2015 (World journal of gastroenterology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.