الفهرس 
Aim of the WorkOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
SUMMARY
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease and systemic disorder principally affecting synovial joints. RA patients show fundamental breakdown in self-tolerance and are not able to induce or maintain tolerance to neoantigens, so immune regulation plays a role in RA.
The fact that vitamin D has immune regulatory effect implicate a relation between vitamin D and RA patients disease status.
So measuring serum level of vitamin D in RA patients help assessing relation between RA disease activity and vitamin D level.
So, the aim of this work is to establish a relationship between serum vitamin D level and disease activity in RA patients.
The present study included sixty patients with RA and forty age and sex matched healthy volunteers who served as a control group.
On comparing serum level of vitamin D of patients group with the control group, the present study showed a statistical significant decrease in the serum level of vitamin D in the study group RA patients compared to the control group.
Additionally, there was a significant difference between patients groups with different degree of disease activity (remission, mild, moderate, severe) as regards serum vitamin D level.
Also, 25(OH)D values showed a significant negative correlation with RA clinical status in RA patients, suggesting possible effects of vitamin D among other factors on disease activity