Serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, total antioxidant capacity, and total oxidant status in central serous chorioretinopathy

The objective of this work is to evaluate plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC), total oxidant status (TOS), and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S) levels in patients diagnosed with acute central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) and control samples. The TAC, TOS, and DHEA-S levels were assessed in the plasma of 46 CSCR patients and compared with 40 control samples. The TAC level was 1.16 +/- 0.08 and 1.20 +/- 0.09 mmol Trolox eq./l; TOS level was 28.77 +/- 33.33 and 19.95 +/- 10.42 mu mol H(2)0(2)/l; DHEA-S level was 203.79 +/- 84.75 mu g/dl and 249.36 +/- 122.93 mu g/dl in the CSCR group and in the control group, respectively. The plasma TAC and DHEA-S values were significantly lower in the CSCR group than in the control group (p = 0.027 and p = 0.046, respectively). There was no significant difference between the CSCR and the control groups in terms of age, gender, and TOS levels (p > 0.05). We demonstrated that the levels of plasma DHEA-S and antioxidative parameters were reduced in CSCR. Our results suggest that the antioxidant defense system may be inadequate or corrupted in CSCR. Reduced DHEA-S level is one of the factors that trigger this insufficiency.