Level of antioxidant vitamins in children suffering from pneumonia

Oxidant antioxidant balance is essential for the normal lung function. Both an increased oxidants and/or decreased antioxidants may reverse the physiologic oxidant antioxidant balance in favour of oxidant leading to lung injury. The aim of present study was to examine the levels of vitamin E & C in children who were suffering from pneumonia. 40 pneumonia children and 40 controls matched with age were analyzed for the study. We observed that highly significant decrease in the concentrations of vitamin E & vitamin C was seen in chil-dren with pneumonia compared to controls (p<0.001) respectively. Also there was increased ratio of vitamin E & vitamin C in patients with pneumonia as compared to the controls.