Management of inflammation: lipid peroxide as a parameter for a better understanding of inflammatory processes.

The management of inflammation, based on an overall, coordinated observation of the inflammatory system, requires the assessment of the validity and biological significance of the various components in inflammation, a procedure that is more reliable than the interpretation of individual measurements in isolation. Such an overall approach, here developed from the model of carrageenin-induced inflammation, also predicates that lysosomal enzymes, lipid peroxide and proamidase (related, respectively, to the inflammatory response in a narrow sense, to tissue damage and to tissue repair) are three basic parameters required when studying inflammatory processes. This overall approach, moreover, shows that the inflammatory process must be regarded as being diachronic, and that in the light of the observation of exudate fluid it can be divided into three main stages, namely an early stage of exudation related to lipid peroxide, an intermediate stage of exudate dilution related to granuloma amidase, and a later stage of exudate concentration related to granuloma amidase and plasma protein.