Burn-induced Oxidative Stress and Serum Glutathione Depletion; a Cross Sectional Study

Several studies have shown the role of oxidative stress in pathophysiology of burn injuries. This study aimed to evaluate the changes of oxidant-antioxidant levels during the week following burn injuries and its correlation with grade of burn. In this prospective cross-sectional study, changes of total glutathione, reduced glutathione (GSH), oxidized GSH (GSSG), GSH/GSSG ratio, as well as Pro-oxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB) were investigated on the 1 , 2 and 7 days of admission in patients with > 15 % burns. 40 patients with the mean age of 21.1 ± 14.5 were studied (47.5% male). More than 50% of patients were in the 18 - 55 years age range and over 70% had 20% - 60% grade of burn. Total serum glutathione level and GSH had significant decreasing trends (P < 0.001) and GSSG and GSH/GSSG ratio had increasing trends (p < 0.001). No significant correlation was observed between serum GSH level and the total body surface area (TBSA) of burn injury (r = 0.047; p = 0.779). The evaluation of PAB and its correlation with TBSA showed a significant and direct association between them on the 1 (coefficient = 0.516; p = 0.001), 2 (coefficient = 0.62; p