Leucocyte ascorbic acid and pressure sores in paraplegia.

I. Leucocyte ascorbic acid concentration was measured in ninety-one paraplegic patients and in forty-one control subjects. Patients and controls were subdivided into males and females, and into smokers and non-smokers. 2. For each subgroup, mean results were lower in the patients than in the controls and lower in patients with pressure sores than in patients without pressure sores. The leucocyte ascorbic acid concentrations oEpatients were significantly lower than those of the corresponding controls for the male smokers with sores, the female non-smokers with sores and the female non-smokers without sores. Leucocyte ascorbic acid concentration was less than I j pg/g/Io* white blood corpuscles in 23 04 of the paticnts studied. 3. The pressure sores of seven patients were studied by biopsy before and after the administration of 0.5 g ascorbic acid twice daily for 3 d. 4. The samples from the second biopsy stained more intensely €or collagen than those from the first. In three other patients studied similarly but given a placebo this effcct was not observed.