A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessing the anti-inflammatory effects of ketamine in cardiac surgical patients.

Objective: To determine whether ketamine administration affects markers of inflammation in cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and to investigate differences between 2 low-dose ketamine regimens.

Design: Prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Setting: Single-center university hospital.

Effect of vitamin C administration on the ratio between the pro- and antioxidative factors.

Much evidence gathered in the last years involve the free radicals (FR) in the mechanisms of initiation, development of neoplastic transformations in vivo and in vitro, as well as in the activity of specific oncogenes. Most of it comes from the fact that the agents that remove the FR or interfere in the chain of events induced by FR can inhibit the neoplastic process both at cellular and molecular level. The antioxidant and free-radical scavenging activities of vitamin C have been intensely investigated, vitamin C being considered the most important antioxidant protective agent in the plasma.