Vitamin D And Iron Levels Correlate Weakly With Hepcidin Levels In Postoperative Patients With Digestive Neoplasms Undergoing Open Abdominal Surgery

OBJECTIVE: Patients with digestive neoplasms have both iron deficiency and chronic inflammatory anemia with hepcidin upregulation, which may be aggravated in the postoperative period. Vitamin D impacts hepcidin levels. We aimed to investigate the correlations between vitamin D and iron status vs. hepcidin levels in patients with digestive tumors undergoing open abdominal surgery.PATIENTS AND METHODS: This prospective observational study was performed during 2016-2018 in a University teaching hospital. After obtaining the Ethical Approval and the patients' informed consent, 30 adult patients with digestive tumors were included. Hepcidin, vitamin D and iron levels were measured in the first 24 hours after surgery.RESULTS: We observed a negligible/weak correlation between serum iron and hepcidin levels in the first 24 hours after surgery. with a correlation coefficient of 0.24 and a weak/low correlation between hepcidin and vitamin D levels, with a correlation coefficient of 0.37.CONCLUSIONS: The correlations between vitamin D and hepcidin levels. as well as between hepcidin and serum iron levels, are weak. Inter-individual variability in iron-hepcidin-vitamin D regulation might be wide and other regulatory mechanisms might also play important roles in inflammatory anemia modulation in the perioperative period.