Total radical-trapping antioxidative capacity of plasma and whole blood chemiluminescence in patients with inflammatory and autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

The total radical-trapping antioxidative capacity (TRAC) of plasma was evaluated in samples from patients suffering from various inflammatory and autoimmune rheumatic diseases (n=104) and correlated with the phorbol ester-stimulated chemiluminescence (CL) of neutrophils and monocytes in unseparated blood. Plasma and blood samples from age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers (n=25) and from patients with non-rheumatic internal diseases (n=31) served as controls. A 2 to 10 fold increase in whole blood chemiluminescence was found in rheumatic patients, which paralleled 50-80% decreased levels of plasma TRAC-values.