Antioxidant defence during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.

Objective: Cardiac surgery may lead to severe oxidative stress due to formation of oxidation products generated during ischemia and reperfusion. We investigated to which extent oxidative stress influences a number of endogenous antioxidants and markers of cellular activation.

Methods: At six time points blood was withdrawn from patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, using the on-pump procedure.