Munawar A Ansari, Shoab Ansari, Zahida Memon.
Does antioxidant ascorbic acid supplementation delay lung function deterioration in stable patients with chronic obstructive ?pulmonary disease.
Rawal Med J Jan ;35(2):133-6.

Objective: To determine whether antioxidant ascorbic acid supplementation holdup the lung function deterioration in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Patients and Methods: The single blind uncontrolled comparative clinical study was carried out at Basic Medical Sciences Research Laboratory, LUMHS, Jamshoro. Forty five enrolled patients were indiscriminately divided into two groups, group-I (n=22), getting standard treatment which included salbutamol 100?g and beclomethasone 50?g in metered-dose aerosol two times a day and group-II (n=23) receiving 500 mg of ascorbic acid twice daily along with standard treatment. Pre-treatment and post-treatment spirometry was carried out as per protocol. Results: In group-I patients an average FEV1/FVC ratio 65.79+2.6% was obtained at baseline which significantly dropped to 58.86+1.47% (P=0.026) at the end of study. While in group-II patients mean FEV1/FVC ratio 65.99+0.943% was at baseline, which non-significantly decreased to 63.59+2.1% (P=0.328) at the end of study. Conclusions: The response of vitamin C in delaying lung function deterioration may point out that oxidative stress is a major component in COPD pathology. So ascorbic acid could be considered as a component of recovery program. (Rawal Med J 2010;35:133-136).

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