The Relationship between Serum Vitamin D Levels and Viral Warts: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D has a role in regulating both adaptive and innate immunity, playing a key part in antimicrobial responses. Objective: To investigate the relation between serum vitamin D levels and the presence and clinical characteristics of patients with viral warts. Methods: A case-control study was conducted at Tikrit Teaching Hospital and a private clinic in Baghdad, Iraq, from April 2023 to August 2024. One hundred patients with warts and 100 healthy controls were enrolled. Demographic data, sun exposure, wart type, wart duration, and family history of warts were collected. Levels of vitamin D were assessed for all participants and categorized as deficient, insufficient, or sufficient. Results: Vitamin D status revealed that 65% of wart cases and 72.2% of controls had sufficient levels. A family history of warts was more common in the deficient (40%) and sufficient (35.4%) groups than in the insufficient vitamin D status. Wart characteristics showed that the deficient and insufficient groups had only primary lesions, while the sufficient group had 43.1% primary and 56.9% recurrent lesions. All individuals in the deficient group had warts for less than one year, contrasting with 85.0% in the insufficient group and 35.4% in the sufficient group. Conclusions: Vitamin D levels were related to specific clinical features of viral warts, with an insignificant difference in vitamin D levels found between the case and the control groups.