Effect of micronutrients supplementation on oxidative stress and antioxidant status in pulmonary tuberculosis

During pulmonary inflammation increased amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced as a consequence of a phagocytic respiratory burst. One of the manifestations of these free radical mediated processes is lipid peroxidation. Study was under taken to evalu-ate the level of lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) and levels of antioxi-dants like vitamin C, vitamin E with total antioxidant status in patients with active pulmo-nary tuberculosis (PTB). Fifty patients with positive sputum for acid fast bacilli (Ziehl Neel-sen (ZN) staining) were divided into two group and 25 healthy controls without any disease were included for this study. 25 patients with active pulmonary TB were treated with Anti tuberculosis therapy (ATT) and remaining 25 cases were treated with antioxidants as an ad-juvant therapy along with ATT. Serum levels of MDA, Vit.C, Vit.E and total antioxidant status were measured .Our results showed significantly decreased level of MDA and in-creased levels of Vit.C, Vit.E and total antioxidant status after six month follow up of anti-oxidants supplementation along with ATT. This study concludes that antioxidants (micro-nutrients) supplementation as an adjuvant therapy helps in reduction of oxidative stress and promotes recovery of patients