Myocardial infarction (MI) is the single largest killer disease in the world. Oxidative stress is one of the hallmarks in patients with acute myocardial infarction as observed in recent years.

Aim and Objectives

The objective of the study was to evaluate oxidative stress and antioxidant enzyme activity in patients of acute MI.

Material and methods

The present study comprised of 50 clinically diagnosed and ECG confirmed cases of acute MI and 50 healthy controls. Oxidative stress marker malondialdehyde (MDA) and enzymatic antioxidants like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and glutathione Reductase were estimated in the cases and controls. Statistical analysis was carried out by using students't' test (unpaired). Correlation analysiswasdone by using SPSS software version 16.

Result

The MDA level was significantly increased (P< 0.0001) in the cases (11.5 ± 0.72 nmol/ml) as compared to controls (6.3 ± 0.92 nmol/ml). The activity of SOD, glutathione reductase and catalasewere significantly low (P< 0.0001) in acuteMI (450.0 ± 116.76 IU/g Hb, 3.1 ± 0.79 IU/g of Hb and 2.6 ± 0.53 IU/g of Hb respectively) as compared to controls (940.4 ± 93.9 IU/g of Hb, 9 ± 1.02 IU/g of Hb and 7.3 ± 0.70 IU/g of Hb respectively). A significant negative correlation was detected between malondialdehyde and catalase activity in acute MI (r= - 0.339; p<0.02).

Conclusion

The study indicates increased oxidative stress and decreased antioxidant defence in patients of acute myocardial infarction. Antioxidant supplements are compounds obtained either by extraction from natural foods (dietary antioxidants) or by chemical synthesis (synthetic antioxidants). Many epidemiological data suggest that synthetic antioxidant supplementation may have a beneficial effect in many chronic diseases. So novel therapeutic approaches like antioxidant supplementation may be useful in the management of persisting oxidative stress in acute MI.