Mar. 16, 2011 Vitamin D deficiency is a well reported
complication in chronic cholestatic liver disease such as
primary biliary cirrhosis. While the prevalence and treatment of
this deficiency has been addressed in many articles over the
last decades, little is known of the vitamin D status in
alcoholic liver cirrhosis. A research article published on
February 21, 2011 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology
addresses this question. The authors described the serum vitamin
D status in a retrospective case series of patients with
alcoholic liver cirrhosis compared to those with primary biliary
cirrhosis. The study showed that vitamin D deficiency is more
frequent and severe in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis
than in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. Furthermore, it
indicated that the degree of liver dysfunction, rather than the
aetiology of cirrhosis, dictates the risk of vitamin D
deficiency. This study emphasizes the importance of monitoring
vitamin D levels in all patients with cirrhosis. How