Vitamin C deficiency is common in critically ill patients. Vitamin C, the most important antioxidant, is likely consumed during oxidative stress and deficiency is associated with organ dysfunction and mortality. Assessment of vitamin C status may be important to identify patients who might benefit from vitamin C administration. Up to now, vitamin C concentrations are not available in daily clinical practice. Recently, a point-of-care device has been developed that measures the static oxidation-reduction potential (sORP), reflecting oxidative stress, and antioxidant capacity (AOC). The aim of this study was to determine whether plasma vitamin C concentrations were associated with plasma sORP and AOC. Plasma vitamin C concentration, sORP and AOC were measured in three groups: healthy volunteers, critically ill patients, and critically ill patients receiving 2- or 10-g vitamin C infusion. Its association was analyzed using regression models and by assessment of concordance. We measured 211 samples obtained from 103 subjects. Vitamin C concentrations were negatively associated with sORP (R2 = 0.816) and positively associated with AOC (R2 = 0.842). A high concordance of 94-100% was found between vitamin C concentration and sORP/AOC. Thus, plasma vitamin C concentrations are strongly associated with plasma sORP and AOC, as measured with a novel point-of-care device. Therefore, measuring sORP and AOC at the bedside has the potential to identify and monitor patients with oxidative stress and vitamin C deficiency.
Keywords: antioxidant capacity; ascorbate; ascorbic acid; oxidation-reduction potential; oxidative stress; point-of-care device; reactive oxygen species; vitamin C deficiency.