{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,4]],"date-time":"2026-09-04T00:48:10Z","timestamp":1788482890871,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,6]],"date-time":"2020-05-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1588723200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001505","name":"Health Research Council of New Zealand","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["16\/037"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["16\/037"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001505","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001530","name":"Canterbury Medical Research Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["15\/06"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["15\/06"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001530","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Pneumonia is a severe lower respiratory tract infection that is a common complication and a major cause of mortality of the vitamin C-deficiency disease scurvy. This suggests an important link between vitamin C status and lower respiratory tract infections. Due to the paucity of information on the vitamin C status of patients with pneumonia, we assessed the vitamin C status of 50 patients with community-acquired pneumonia and compared these with 50 healthy community controls. The pneumonia cohort comprised 44 patients recruited through the Acute Medical Assessment Unit (AMAU) and 6 patients recruited through the Intensive Care Unit (ICU); mean age 68 \u00b1 17 years, 54% male. Clinical, microbiological and hematological parameters were recorded. Blood samples were tested for vitamin C status using HPLC with electrochemical detection and protein carbonyl concentrations, an established marker of oxidative stress, using ELISA. Patients with pneumonia had depleted vitamin C status compared with healthy controls (23 \u00b1 14 \u00b5mol\/L vs. 56 \u00b1 24 \u00b5mol\/L, p &lt; 0.001). The more severe patients in the ICU had significantly lower vitamin C status than those recruited through AMAU (11 \u00b1 3 \u00b5mol\/L vs. 24 \u00b1 14 \u00b5mol\/L, p = 0.02). The pneumonia cohort comprised 62% with hypovitaminosis C and 22% with deficiency, compared with only 8% hypovitaminosis C and no cases of deficiency in the healthy controls. The pneumonia cohort also exhibited significantly elevated protein carbonyl concentrations compared with the healthy controls (p &lt; 0.001), indicating enhanced oxidative stress in the patients. We were able to collect subsequent samples from 28% of the cohort (mean 2.7 \u00b1 1.7 days; range 1\u20137 days). These showed no significant differences in vitamin C status or protein carbonyl concentrations compared with baseline values (p = 0.6). Overall, the depleted vitamin C status and elevated oxidative stress observed in the patients with pneumonia indicates an enhanced requirement for the vitamin during their illness. Therefore, these patients would likely benefit from additional vitamin C supplementation to restore their blood and tissue levels to optimal. This may decrease excessive oxidative stress and aid in their recovery.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu12051318","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,7]],"date-time":"2020-05-07T03:10:38Z","timestamp":1588821038000},"page":"1318","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":29,"title":["Patients with Community Acquired Pneumonia Exhibit Depleted Vitamin C Status and Elevated Oxidative Stress"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5890-2977","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anitra C.","family":"Carr","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition in Medicine Research Group, Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, University of Otago, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7712-5643","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Emma","family":"Spencer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition in Medicine Research Group, Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, University of Otago, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liane","family":"Dixon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stephen T.","family":"Chambers","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Infection Group, Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, University of Otago, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,5,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1619","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMra1312885","article-title":"Community-acquired pneumonia","volume":"371","author":"Musher","year":"2014","journal-title":"N. 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