Oxidative stress tests: overview on reliability and use. Part I.

Monitoring oxidative stress in humans is achieved by assaying products of oxidative damage or by investigating the potential of an organism, tissue or body fluids to withstand further oxidation. Unfortunately, there is little consensus concerning the selection of parameters of oxidative stress or antioxidant state to be determined in defined patients or diseases. This is not only due to the uncertainty wheter or not a certain parameter is playing a causative role. Moreover, the methods of determination described in the literature represent very different levels of analytical practicability, costs, and quality. Generally accepted reference ranges and interpretations of pathological situations are lacking as well as control materials. At present, the situation is changing dramatically and sophisticated methods like HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) and immunochemical determinations have become more and more common standard.