GS19 *THE ANTIOXIDANT STATUS OF AN INFLAMMATORY DISEASE AS MEASURED BY CYCLIC VOLTAMMETRY

Objective:   To determine whether serum antioxidant capacity measured by the electrochemical technique of cyclic voltammetry (CV) could resolve differences in severity of the inflammatory disease acute pancreatitis. Methods:   Experimental animal study using male Wistar rats. Group 1 (baseline), immediate euthanasia with no surgical interventions; Group 2 (sham), identical surgical procedures to the pancreatitis groups but no intraductal infusion; Groups 3–5, acute pancreatitis induced by intraductal infusion of 3%, 4% or 5% sodium taurocholate respectively. Terminal blood and pancreatic tissue samples for CV, biochemistry and histology were collected at 12 h (Groups 2–5). Results:   There was a significant positive correlation of the first serum cyclic voltametric peak current maxima (CVi1) with pancreatic histological severity (Spearman r = 0.51, p = 0.007) as well as with a number of other markers of systemic disease severity, notably bicarbonate (r =−0.57, p = 0.002), base excess (r =−0.65, p < 0.001) urea (r =−0.68, p < 0.001) and calcium (r =−0.60, p = 0.008). CVi1 was superior at indicating the severity of the disease state compared to a standard method of total antioxidant capacity measurement. Conclusions:   CV was found to be a simple, technique that could differentiate between the physiological and histological severities of acute pancreatitis. Further clinical studies are now justified to determine if point-of-care CV offers prognostic and treatment-monitoring advantages for severe acute inflammatory illnesses within the critical care setting.