ABSTRACT
The study was carried on 90 adult cases which were divided into 3 groups of 30 cases each. Group A consisted of 30 normal healthy controls whereas Group B and C comprised of 30 patients each of chronic stable ischaemic heart disease and of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), respectively. Patients in all the 3 groups were age and sex matched. Group C consisted of 17 cases of anterior wall myocardial infarction, 10 of inferior wall, 2 of anterolateral and 1 of antero-inferior MI and they had an average 6.96 +/- 3.39 hours of chest pain before hospitalization. Serum vitamin E in group A, B and C on day 1 was 7.90 +/- 3.23, 5.345 +/- 2.37 and 1.302 +/- 1.090 micrograms/ml, respectively and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in these groups were 0.759 +/- 0.27, 0.780 +/- 0.334 and 3.092 +/- 1.124 nmol/ml, respectively. Vitamin E and MDA levels in group C on day 3 were 3.382 +/- 1.088 micrograms/ml and 1.492 +/- 0.849 nmol/ml, respectively. In Group C, vitamin E levels were significantly decreased (p < 0.001) as compared to controls and remained low after 2 days. MDA levels were raised more than 3 times in AMI group (p < 0.01) and decreased slightly after 2 days but were elevated compared to controls. Findings suggest that vitamin E deficiency is inversely related to lipid peroxidation and is elevated during AMI. Therefore supplementation of vitamin E in AMI would be beneficial.