Pulmonary edema fluid antioxidants are depressed in acute lung injury.

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.