A Case-Control Study of Serum and Tissue Catalase among Morphological Variants of Vitiligo

BACKGROUND: Role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. AIM: Estimation of serum and tissue catalase levels in morphological variants of vitiligo. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A prospective case-control study was conducted in the outpatient department of Dermatology in Safdarjung hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We estimated levels of serum and tissue catalase in 30 vitiligo patients and 30 matched healthy controls. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data analysis was done in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Normality of data was tested by Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. RESULTS: Serum and tissue catalase was lower in vitiligo patients than controls. Serum catalase was lowest in vulgaris type, whereas in the acrofacial type had lowest tissue catalase levels. CONCLUSION: Vitiligo patients have a generalized oxidative stress functioning at a higher pace as seen with decreased serum and tissue CAT which can well be taken as a marker of active disease and they can be helped with topical pseudoCAT preparations.