Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations in Cirrhotic Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The liver is crucial for 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) metabolism, and vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in patients with cirrhosis and predicts adverse outcomes.

Secondary outcome measures included liver function tests (aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT), and alkaline phosphatase (AP)), albumin, International Normalized Ratio (INR), bilirubin, the liver fibrosis marker hyaluronic acid, and parameters of mineral metabolism including parathyroid hormone (PTH).

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 36 patients were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

The researchers enrolled 36 consecutive patients with cirrhosis and 25(OH)D concentrations below 30 ng/mL.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

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.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

This is a double-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled study conducted from December 2013 to May 2014 at the Medical University of Graz, and the hospital Hoergas-Enzenbach, Austria.

What Was Measured

The liver is crucial for 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) metabolism, and vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in patients with cirrhosis and predicts adverse outcomes.

Secondary outcome measures included liver function tests (aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT), and alkaline phosphatase (AP)), albumin, International Normalized Ratio (INR), bilirubin, the liver fibrosis marker hyaluronic acid, and parameters of mineral metabolism including parathyroid hormone (PTH).

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Dietary Supplements, Liver Cirrhosis and Vitamin D.

Author keywords: RCT, intervention and supplementation.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 36 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.

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2016 (Nutrients), a journal based in Switzerland.

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