Evaluation of thiol disulphide levels in patients with pulmonary embolism

Objectives Maintaining the thiol-disulphide balance is essential for antioxidant defense and apoptosis. The study aimed to evaluate of thiol-disulphide levels in patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). Methods The study included a total of 97 participants: 48 patients and 49 healthy individuals. Serum native thiol (NT), total thiol (TT) and disulphide (DS) levels (µmol/L) were measured using the novel spectrophotometric method. Results We found significantly lower levels of NT (195.44±83.3 μmol/L), DS (20.42±9.20 μmol/L) and TT (236.26±90.66 μmol/L) in patients with PE compared with the healthy controls (304.42±62.13, 24.33±8.09 and 353.07±63.58 μmol/L respectively). Patients with PE had lower serum albumin levels (3.11±1.03 g/dL) and higher ischaemia modified albumin (IMA) levels (0.82±0.16 g/dL) compared with the controls (3.89±0.52 and 0.67±0.15 g/dL, respectively). Serum albumin levels in patients were strongly correlated with plasma IMA (r=−0.737; p<0.001), NT (r=0.786; p<0.001) and TT levels (r=0.841; p<0.001). Serum NT levels were strongly correlated with serum TT levels (r=0.981; p<0.001) in patients. Conclusions This study found lower TT, NT and DS levels in patients with PE than in the control group. Our study revealed that thiol-disulphide homeostasis could be altered during PE and further studies are needed to be used as prognostic markers for hospital mortality.