Executive Summary

Future studies attempting to relate vitamin C levels to disease occurrence should include an inflammatory marker such as serum C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration, Belgian researchers suggest in April 10 Circulation. Michel Langlois, Ghent University Hospital, et al., investigated vitamin C levels in 85 patients with peripheral artery disease, 106 hypertensives without PAD and 113 healthy subjects. "Serum L-ascorbic acid concentrations were low among PAD patients despite comparable smoking status and dietary intake with the other groups," researchers say, noting low vitamin C concentration in PAD patients was associated with high CRP level, smoking and "shorter absolute claudication distance on a standardized graded treadmill test"