Total Antioxidant Capacity in Female Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Overview

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease in the pathogenesis of which an important part isplayed also by reactive forms of oxygen. For compensation of chronic oxidation stress properfunctioning of antioxidant defence is needed. To elucidate its role the author assessed the antioxi-dant capacity in 120 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 51 controls. The antioxidant status wasmeasured by a set provided by Randox Co. using the ABTS method. The mean value of theantioxidant capacity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis was 1.581±1.31 mmol/l, in members of thecontrol group 1.666±0.136 mmol/l and the difference was highly significant ( p < 0.00031). The authordid not find a statistically significant difference between the value of the antioxidant status inseropositive and seronegative patients (1.575 mmol/l vs. 1.601 mmol/l). In the group with rheumatoidarthritis the author found a significant correlation of the antioxidant status and th e uric acidconcentration ( r: 0.4994, p < 0.01). In patients with rheumatoid arthritis an inverse relationship wasfound between the CRP concentration and the antioxidant status (r : –0.2351, p < 0.05). In the groupwith rheumatoid arthritis no correlation was found between the antioxidant status and age, in thecontrol groups a slight correlation was found ( r : 0.3139, p < 0.05). The results confirm the few reportson reduction of the antioxidant status in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and its relationshipwith the uric acid concentration.

Key words:
total antioxidant status, rheumatoid arthritis