title: Pulmonary edema fluid antioxidants are depressed in acute lung injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the hypothesis that low concentrations of distal airspace water-soluble antioxidants are associated with acute lung injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective, cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical intensive care unit of two tertiary care hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were 29 patients with acute lung injury and 23 normal, healthy, volunteers.
  
  
  METHODS
  None.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pulmonary edema fluid from subjects with acute lung injury was aspirated immediately after intubation. Compared with the bronchoalveolar lavage from normal subjects (corrected for dilution using urea concentrations), undiluted edema fluid from acute lung injury subjects had significantly lower concentrations of the antioxidants urate (757 +/- 232 microM vs. 328 +/- 75 microM), glutathione (138 +/- 25 microM vs. 7 +/- 4 microM), and ascorbate (85 +/- 21 microM vs. 27 +/- 10 microM).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Acute lung injury is associated with decreased concentrations of water-soluble antioxidants in the distal airspaces. In acute lung injury, the distal airspace antioxidants ascorbate, urate, and glutathione may play a role in attenuating lung injury.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000032:analysis*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000737:chemistry*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011654:Pulmonary Edema / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000032:analysis*; D012016:Reference Values; D012128:Respiratory Distress Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D015415:Biomarkers; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species