—Although supportive therapy can be efficacious during the first few days after paraquat ingestion, thought must be given to trying to ameliorate the subsequent pulmonary fibrosis that usually occurs in the latter stages and that we believe, in part, may be a consequence of peroxidative damage to tissue. Possibly, circulating blood cells may participate in cyclic oxidation-reduction reactions with paraquat. We considered this possibility but failed to detect respiratory burst products when paraquat ranging from 2.5mM to 50mM was incubated with human blood neutrophils.
Other antioxidants, eg, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid, might be more effective than vitamin E. It normally takes at least a few weeks to achieve tissue levels beyond that observed in the normal range with vitamin E therapy.1,2
We were concerned that spontaneous generation of malondialdehyde might occur in the serum. On obtaining the serum samples, we completely filled the containers and immediately froze the specimens