title: Is supplementation efficacious in maintaining adequate plasma levels of vitamin a and e for thalassemic patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation? A cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Thalassemia along with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) can lead to major oxidative stress. Vitamins A and E are antioxidants which protect membrane from lipid peroxidation. We sought to determine for the first time, whether vitamins A and E supplementation is efficacious in maintaining or increasing plasma level of these vitamins in thalassemic children undergoing HSCT.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was performed on 50 children with β-thalassemia major hospitalized for HSCT. Patients took a daily multivitamin. Plasma vitamins A and E levels were measured at four different times: on admission, HSCT day (day 0), day 7 and day 14 after HSCT. Findings : Plasma vitamin A and E were abnormal on admission in most patients (62.0% and 60.0% respectively). Ratio of patient with normal to abnormal plasma level of the vitamins improved from baseline to a peak on day 7 then deteriorated afterward until day 14. There was an increasingly positive correlation between daily oral intake and plasma vitamin A at different times, but plasma vitamin E showed inverse correlation at first which tended towards no correlation subsequently. In multivariate analysis, supplementation significantly changed plasma level of vitamin A at different measurement time (P=0.001) within study subjects. But, plasma level of vitamin E showed no significant difference (P=0.2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that oral supplementation could have beneficial effects due to increasing plasma vitamin A level and preventing plasma vitamin E depletion.
authors: Department of Drug and Food Control.
authors: Mannan
authors: M
authors: Hajimahmoodi
authors: Department of Clinical Pharmacy,Faculty of Pharmacy ; Research Center for Rational Use of Drugs.
authors: Molouk
authors: M
authors: Hadjibabaie
authors: Hematology Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center, Department of Hematology-Oncology, Shariati Hospital.
authors: Amir-Ali
authors: AA
authors: Hamidieh
authors: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health.
authors: Alireza
authors: A
authors: Ahmadvand
authors: Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Sahebeh
authors: S
authors: Kazempanah
authors: Department of Drug and Food Control.
authors: Naficeh
authors: N
authors: Sadeghi
authors: Research Center for Rational Use of Drugs.
authors: Ava
authors: A
authors: Mansouri
authors: Hematology Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center, Department of Hematology-Oncology, Shariati Hospital.
authors: Ardeshir
authors: A
authors: Ghavamzadeh
keywords: Dietary Supplements; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; Thalassemia; Vitamin A; Vitamin E