Introduction: Parkinson’s disease affects the nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine. Oxidative stress may contribute to the neurodegenerative process in Parkinson‘s disease (PD) and the presence of an altered antioxidant defense system in upper motor neurons, suggesting that oxidative stress may be a widespread phenomenon in PD .This might result from increased exposure to free radicals coupled with deficit of antioxidants. Antioxidant enzyme, erythrocytic superoxide dismutase (ESOD), has demonstrated its efficacy in exploring the mechanism of PD. The present study was undertaken to find the levels of ESOD inPD.

 Materials and Methods: 39Parkinson’s disease patients and 61 age matched controls were studied for their red cell superoxide dismutase levels. Analysis was performed by using ANOVA test to compare the values between Parkinson’s disease patients and controls. Age and gender wise statistical analysis was performed of the ESOD in the PD and controls.

Results: Mean of ESOD in controls was 335.62units/ml of whole blood with S.D. of ± 30.36. Mean of ESOD in PD was208.00 with S.D. of ± 47.72

units/ml of whole blood, when compared statistically with control the ‘mean difference was108.58 and was highly significant i.e. ‘p’ value is  <0.001  .

In case of ESOD mean value for males it was 338.69 and females it was 330.18. When compared statistically it was found to be nonsignificant with t value 1.052.

Conclusion: There was significant decrease in ESOD levels among PD patients which might provide supportive tool in understanding prognosis of the disease.