Kim HB, et al. – This meta–analysis aimed to examine the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in combination with conventional antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection. The researchers observed that in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection, additional use of vitamin D had a positive effect on sustained viral response rates. However, due to substantial heterogeneity, a small sample size and a low methodological quality, they could not establish the efficacy.

• In September 2016, the researchers searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov and the bibliographies of relevant articles to locate additional publications.
• For this study, 3 evaluators independently reviewed and selected eligible studies based on predetermined selection criteria.

• The initial criteria was met by 522 articles.
• Out of them, 7 open-label, randomised controlled trials involving 548 participants, were included in the final analysis.
• At 24 weeks after treatment in a random-effects meta-analysis, vitamin D supplementation in combination with pegylated interferon-α (Peg-IFN-α) injection and oral RBV significantly increased the rate of viral response for hepatitis C (relative risk = 1.30; 95% confidence interval = 1.04–1.62; I2 = 75.9%).
• Also, the researchers observed its significant efficacy in patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 1, which was known to be refractory to antiviral therapy.