Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease in the pathogenesis of which an important part is played also by reactive forms of oxygen. For compensation of chronic oxidation stress proper functioning of antioxidant defence is needed. To elucidate its role the author assessed the antioxi- dant capacity in 120 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 51 controls. The antioxidant status was measured by a set provided by Randox Co. using the ABTS method. The mean value of the antioxidant capacity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis was 1.581±1.31 mmol/l, in members of the control group 1.666±0.136 mmol/l and the difference was highly significant ( p < 0.00031). The author did not find a statistically significant difference between the value of the antioxidant status in seropositive and seronegative patients (1.575 mmol/l vs. 1.601 mmol/l). In the group with rheumatoid arthritis the author found a significant correlation of the antioxidant status and th e uric acid concentration ( r: 0.4994, p < 0.01). In patients with rheumatoid arthritis an inverse relationship was found between the CRP concentration and the antioxidant status (r : –0.2351, p < 0.05). In the group with rheumatoid arthritis no correlation was found between the antioxidant status and age, in the control groups a slight correlation was found ( r : 0.3139, p < 0.05). The results confirm the few reports on reduction of the antioxidant status in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and its relationship with the uric acid concentration.

        Key words: total antioxidant status, rheumatoid arthritis