engleski

Total antioxidant status in patients with acute pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis is an autodigestive disease associated with activation of many enzymes in the pancreatic tissue and their entry in the circulation. The most common causes of acute pancreatitis include biliary tract disease and alcohol abuse. Recent studies have shown the bile, duodenal juice and pancreatic tissue of these patients to contain increased amounts of lipid peroxidation products. As lipid peroxidation occurs consequentially to the toxic action of free radicals on lipid molecules, these results point to the active role of free radicals in the genesis of acute pancreatitis. The body has a complex mechanism of defense, which protects the cells and biomolecules from the harmful effects of free radicals. The aim of the study was to assess the functional capacity of the overall antioxidative mechanism of defense in patients with acute pancreatitis. Study group included 41 patients of both sexes with clinical signs of the disease. Blood samples were obtained on a single occasion in the initial stage of the disease. The values of total antioxidative status (TAS) in plasma, and of alfa amylase and lipase in serum as standard markers of the disease, were determined. Control group consisted of 48 subjects of both sexes without clinical signs of the disease, in whom the same parameters were determined. The following results were obtained ( x ą SD ) : TAS ( mmol/L ) : patient group 1,23 ą 0,18 ; control group 1,51ą 0,13 alfa amylase ( U/L) : patient group 761 ą 621 ; control group 33 ą 19 lipase ( U/L ) : patient group 5133 ą 4077 ; control group 128 ą 51 Statistical analysis of the results yielded statistically significantly lower TAS values, and statistically significantly higher alfa amylase and lipase values in the group of patients with acute pancreatitis than in the control group ( p < 0,05 both ). The decreased values of TAS in the acute pancreatitis patients pointed to a reduced antioxidative capacity of the defense system as a whole, due to the increased production of free radicals which had surpassed the defense system capacity and led to its exhaustion.

TAS; acute pancreatitis

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