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Rebecca Voelker
JAMA contributor

JAMA. 1998;279:1249.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

For several years, researchers worldwide have speculated that antioxidant vitamins may protect healthy people or those with low reserves of natural antioxidant compounds against cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and other conditions. Yet definite conclusions have been elusive because no reliable technique exists to measure free radical activity in the body or determine if vitamins counteract the damage.

But in the March 31 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pa, describe a new, noninvasive technique to measure free radical activity. They have identified an isoprostane called IPF₂-I as a stable, abundant by-product of arachidonic acid that free radicals oxidize in the body. The by-product is easily detected in the urine, they report.

In a previous study, the researchers found high levels of IPF₂-I in atherosclerotic plaque removed from the neck arteries of patients who underwent endarterectomy. . . . [Full Text of this Article]