Assessment of blood level of vitamin C in children with bronchial asthma

Objective The aim was to assess the serum level of vitamin C in children with bronchial asthma. Background Vitamin C is abundant in the extracellular and intracellular lining fluid of the lungs, so it can participate in the primary lung defense against the reduction of oxidative mechanisms and therefore it has protective effects against bronchial asthma. Patients and methods This study was a case–control study that involved 60 pediatric patients with bronchial asthma as the cases group and 25 apparently normal children as the control group. All patients and controls were subjected to the same history taking, clinical examination, and investigations which involved: (a) laboratory investigations such as (i) complete blood count (red blood cells–white blood cells–platelets) by coulter, (ii) Differential leukocytic count especially (eosinophils), (iii) estimation of plasma level of vit C; (b) plain radiography for chest and heart (posteroanterior view): to exclude other chest diseases such as atelectasis or pneumonia and heart failure or cardiomegaly; and (c) pulmonary function tests such as spirometry: the apparatus used was ZAN 100 Spirometry. This was a portable spirometer capable of measuring both expiratory and inspiratory parameters. It was done to children above 6 years of age only. The pulmonary function tests used were forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC%). Results Bronchial asthma was predominant in men (about 31 men, 51.66%) than women (about 29 women 48.33%) in the cases group. Thirty-two asthmatic children (about 53.3%) had a positive history of consanguinity and 32 asthmatic children (about 53.33%) had a positive history of atopy. There were highly statistically significant differences between cases and control groups as regards FVC% and FEV1(P Conclusion We found that children with bronchial asthma had significant lower levels of serum vitamin C than the control children. There were statistically significant differences between cases and control groups as regards severity of asthma and serum vitamin C levels. We concluded that a low level of vitamin C may influence the development of bronchial asthma and serum vitamin C deficiency may be caused or aggravated in asthmatic children.