Deficiency of antioxidant defence in spontaneous pneumothorax

Abstract

Spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) is one of the most common clinical problems encountered by thoracic surgeons. More than 20% of patients with SP relapse within a year and require surgery for recurrence. SP is caused by rupture of a subpleural bleb or emphysematous bullae, most often found in the apex of the lung. The pathophysiologic mechanism of these lesions is not clear. Cigarette smoking that leads exposure of tremendous amounts of oxidant agents is an important factor. The other contributing factors may be congenital pulmonary-pleural defects and defective antioxidant defence. Previous studies in our department revealed that there have been defective antioxidant enzyme activities accompanied with altered platelet function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease namely in chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In addition, it has been shown that supportive treatment of glutathione system normalises platelet response to agonists in these patients. In the present study both activities of erythrocyte antioxidant enzymes; superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and ADP, collagen-induced platelet aggregation in whole blood were evaluated in 12 SP patients and 72 healthy volunteers. In the patient group, SOD activity and ADP-induced platelet aggregation response were found significantly lower than those of the controls (p