Patients with primary biliary cirrhosis have increased serum total antioxidant capacity measured with the crocin bleaching assay.

Aim: The balance between oxidants and antioxidants can play an important role in the initiation and development of liver diseases. Recently, we have described a new automated method for the determination of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in human serum and plasma.

Methods: We measured TAC and corrected TAC (CTAC -abstraction of interactions due to endogenous uric acid, bilirubin and albumin) in 52 patients with chronic liver diseases (41 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), 10 patients with chronic hepatitis C and 13 patients with viral HCV cirrhosis) as well as in 10 healthy controls.