ABSTRACT

Endosulfan compounds have been widely used for a few decades in agriculture for crop protection and pests control. Thousands of these compounds have been screened and over one hundred of them have been marketed for these purposes.  The present study is focused on the effects of oxidative stress on acute exposure of endosulfan poison. The study was conducted at the emergency care department of a tertiary care teaching hospital, which is a 1200 bedded multidisciplinary super specialities government hospital. The study  period was  eight months from Jan 2011 to Aug 2011. The patients included in the study were those who had ingested endosulfan compound available as household or agricultural pesticide. Among 90 patients, 59 are males and 31 were females. The mean age was 31.16±2.67 years with a range of 18-60 years. A control group consisting of 56 unexposed pesticides, were age-matched, who never had any exposure to pesticides as control group. The study highlighted 18-30 years age group patient who were most commonly ingested endosulfan compound. Whereas, MDA levels was found to be 19.887±1805 nM/ml, which is significantly (P => 0.0001) increased compared to healthy subjects. Whereas, glutathione levels was found to be 4.924±8991µmol/ml which is significantly lower (P = >0.0001) compared to healthy subjects and similarly, total antioxidant level was found to be 13.52±2.469 µmol/ml which is significantly lower (P = >0.0001) compared to healthy subjects.  Our results elaborate the significance of oxidative stress in endosulfan poisoning and emphasis clinicians to prescribed antioxidants. However, in future pharmacological, histopathological studies necessary to explore toxicokinetics.

Key words: Antioxidant, Endosulfan, Glutathione, Morbidity, Mortality.