Status of oxidant and antioxidants in term newborns with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy: A case control design

Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is due to failure to initiate and sustain breathing immediately after delivery which may leads to increase mortality and morbidity in these neonates. This may cause severe and permanent neuropsychological sequelae, including mental retardation, visual motor or visual perceptive dysfunction, increased hyperactivity, cerebral palsy and epilepsy. The brain damage may occur due to release of free radicals in HIE. So this case control study was conducted on 50 neonates with HIE and 25 healthy neonates with the aim to compare the status of oxidants and antioxidants in these both groups. It was observed that Malonyldialdehyde (MDA) was found with significantly increased in study group than control group i.e. 12.26±4.1 nmol/ml in study and 2.10±0.10 nmol/ml in control group. Among antioxidants, Catalase (30.42± 7.7 v/s 14.59± 4.7) and SOD (2.59± 0.4 v/s 1.54± 0.3) were found significantly increased whereas Vit E (1.36± 0.3 v/s 2.73± 0.6) was found significantly decreased in neonates with HIE than controls.