Is vitamin D supplement accompanied with narrow band UVB effective for treatment of vitiligo?

Abstract

Vitiligo is an acquired autoimmune depigmenting disorder that is the result of white macules formation in the skin and mucous membranes, caused by the loss of melanocytes. It has affected 0.4 to 2.0% of world’s population. It has been hypothesized that Vitamin D is important for skin pigmentation, but the correlation between vitamin D and vitiligo treatment response needs to be evaluated. To evaluate vitamin D supplementation effect on the vitiligo area severity index in patients treated with narrow band UVB (NB UVB). This clinical pilot randomized study was carried out on 48 vitiligo patients who admitted to the Department of Dermatology at Imam Khomeini Hospital. Patients were randomly divided into two groups: intervention group which received vitamin D supplementation with a dose of 50,000 units once every 2 weeks, for 8 weeks. The rest of the patients were put in control group and consumed placebo. Treatment with NB UVB irradiation with a starting dose of 0.3 j/CM2 was carried out twice a week for all patients. Our study included 21 males and 27 females. The mean age of patients was 28.08 years old. The disease’s duration ranged from 1 to 15 years, with the mean of 4.52 ± 4.2 years. Sex distribution and mean age were not significantly different in either groups. Vitamin D deficiency was seen in 32 (66.7%) of the patients. Vitiligo area severity index (VASI) score significantly decreased from 27.14 to 4.4 in intervention group and from 7.7 to 3.28 in control group. The correlation between mean 25(OH)D serum levels and VASI before and after intervention was statistically insignificant. NB UVB could significantly improve regimentation in vitiligo patients. Moreover, it significantly increased the serum level of vitamin D. But we have failed to demonstrate any significant correlation between serum level of vitamin D and VASI score in vitiligo patients.