Abstract
Whole-blood and serum total ascorbate (TA), ascorbate (AA) and dehydroascorbate (DA) levels of 44 healthy subjects (23 males and 21 females) and 36 chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN) patients (24 males and 12 females) undergoing regular chronic haemodialysis (HD) were investigated. CGN patients on regular HD displayed significantly lower levels of TA, AA and DA in both whole-blood and serum. The haemodialysis treatment seems to have a major impact on the levels of these metabolites. The mean pre-dialysis, whole-blood and serum levels of TA, AA and DA in patients were not significantly different from those of healthy subjects (p < 0.1). However, after HD treatment, whole-blood and serum levels of TA, AA and DA declined significantly (p < 0.001).