Objectives: To observe if there is any connectivity between oxidative stress and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).

Materials and methods: Patients suffering from different cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, ischemic heart disease, rheumatic heart disease) attending Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara and strictly matched controls were selected for this study. Oxidative stress (OS) was measured by plasma thiobarbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS) where as antioxidant status was measured by estimating vitamin E, vitamin C and total antioxidant activity (TAA) in plasma.

Results: The mean level of TBARS, TAA, vitamin C and E were 2.20+0.43 nmol/ml, 547+98 μmol/l, 0.88+0.15 mg/dl and 0.75+0.20 mg/dl respectively in patients. The respective values in controls were 1.86+0.43 nmol/ml, 859+139 μmol/l, 0.94+0.15 mg/dl and 1.10+0.30 mg/dl. Although the OS seems to be raised in patients, is practically insufficient to oxidize biomolecules and induce CVDs. Despite vitamin C and E levels being well within normal limits, the TAA was significantly and considerably lower in patients. This is a highly interesting observation suggesting that dietary antioxidants other than these vitamins were preferentially consumed to control OS because procedure for TAA used in this study practically measures only total dietary antioxidants.

Conclusion: OS does not appear to be an etiological factor for the cardiovascular diseases; rather slightly raised OS in patients seems to be a consequence. Further the raised OS was not due to lower nutrient antioxidant (vit. C and vit. E) in the local population studied herein.