Effect of perfluorocarbon emulsion on the level of nitric oxide and hydrogen peroxide in patients with acute respiratory failure

The purpose of our research was to evaluate the effects of the perfluorocarbon emulsion in patients with ARDS by the results of biochemical testing of expired air condensates.

We have examined expired air condensates (EAC) in patients with various stages of ARDS using spectrophotometry to study NO metabolites and fluorescence to study H₂O₂. Perfluorocarbon emulsion, perftoran, was administrated 5 ml/kg two to three times on the day. Our investigation showed the increase of NO metabolite level in EAC patients with the first and second stages of ARDS and its significant reduction in EAC patients with the third and fourth stages. The level of H₂O₂ in EAC elevated with the progression of ARDS. In the present study, it was established that the NO metabolite level and H₂O₂ level in the EAC patients with perfluorocarbon administration was not so increased as the level in the EAC patients without it. It was more expressed in the patients with the first and second stages of ARDS. All these patients had positive disease dynamics. Administration of perftoran to the patients with the third and fourth stages was not noted as a clear dynamic of inflammatory marker level.

We conclude that infusions of oxygen-carrying blood substituted by the oxidative stress, which takes place in the last ARDS stages, may increase lung injury due to the increase of the H₂O₂ level. Applications of perfluorocarbon emulsion to the ARDS patients are effective and pathogenic expedient methods in the early stages (first and second) of ARDS.