[Blood catalase activity in brain tumors during the postoperative period]

Proceeding from the current ideas on the significance of the catalase in the oxidative phosphorylation, oxygenation and desoxygenation of hemoglobin the activity of the above enzyme was studied in the blood of 60 patients with brain tumours. It was found that prior to a surgical intervention the catalase activity at the rate per 1 g of hemoglobin (the catalase index-CI) varied within the same range in patients with brain tumours of a different histological structure (meningiomas, adenomas of the pituitary, gliomas, metastases of cancer). The catalase index of the patients' blood does not differ from that in healthy individuals. In the post-operative period the catalase index rises right from the first days, paralleling the development of a general reaction to the damage. There exists a correlation between a fall in the level of hemoglobin and a rise of the catalase index, which apparently, has a compensatory significance. An investigation of the catalase in the clinical picture of the stress-syndrome may be of use for prognostic purposes.