Is there any correlation between stages of endometriosis and severity of chronic pelvic pain? Possibilities of treatment.

We report herein findings on 181 patients, suffering from pelvic endometriosis confirmed by histology, whose main symptom was chronic pelvic pain (CPP). They attended the outpatient clinic at the 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Semmelweis University in Budapest, between 1 January 1995 and 1 January 2000. The extent of pelvic endometriosis was determined on the basis of the 1985 revised scoring system of the American Fertility Society (R-AFS). The short form of the McGill pain questionnaire was used for the evaluation of CPP. After the first operative intervention, therapy with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analog was given for 6 months. Second-look laparoscopy was performed 8-10 weeks after the end of GnRH-analog treatment, which was followed by a non-conventionally administered, monophasic oral contraceptive (OC) treatment. In the long term, 118 patients received the non-conventionally administered, monophasic OC treatment, which contained a third-generation progestogen, to be taken continuously for at least 6 months. The other 63 patients who did not receive OC treatment for one reason or another were evaluated as a control group. We analyzed data on CPP before the first surgical intervention, then following therapy with the GnRH analog at the second-look operation, and then after 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. We also reviewed potential causes of CPP, especially focused on endometriosis. No correlation was found between the stage of endometriosis according to R-AFS score and the severity of CPP. At the 24-month follow-up after second-look laparoscopy, the non-conventionally administered monophasic OC treatment was found not only to significantly reduce pain scores, but also the required radical operative solution (hysterectomy plus bilateral adnexectomy) for CPP by OC users.

[Intestinal endometriosis causing subacute ileus. Experience in three cases]. / Subileust okozó bélendometriosis. Három eset kapcsán szerzett tapasztalataink.

We present three rare cases of intestinal endometriosis. The patients were treated at the Endometriosis Clinic of the 1st Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Semmelweis University, Budapest. Their main symptom besides the classic symptoms of endometriosis (dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, pelvic pain) was the catamenial haematochesia--a subacute obstruction which became more intensive in the perimenstrum and needed medical treatment but no surgical intervention. Because of the recurrent complaints, after detailed check-up and biopsy of the obstructing intestinal endometriosis, anterior resection of the rectum was performed with endocoagulation or extirpation of other endometriosis implants of the pelvis. Depending on the severity of pre or postoperative complaints patients underwent a GnRH-analogue therapy for six months. In one patient because of the patient's age, and extensive retrocervical-deep endometriosis causing serious dyspareunia--the resection was performed with additional hysterectomy and adnexectomy (TAH). Recently the patient is on monophasic hormone replacement therapy. In the two other patients after a second-look laparoscopy with testing the lumen of the tubes treatment was started for the induction--because of infertility. We give an overview of the frequency, incidence and possible pathomechanism of pelvic endometriosis. We describe the modern diagnostic and therapeutic tools of pelvic endometriosis.

Impaired humoral immune response against mycobacterial 65-kDa heat shock protein (HSP65) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Since only scarce data are available on the immune response against heat shock proteins (HSP) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we have measured with an ELISA method serum levels of IgG, IgA, and IgM antibodies to mycobacterial HSP65 and human HSP60 in 66 patients with Crohn's disease (CD), 42 patients with ulceratiVe colitis (UC), and 126 age-and gender-matched healthy controls. Serum concentration [median (25th-75th percentiles) of IgG anti-HSP65 antibodies was substantially lower in patients with either CD (P < 0.01) or UC (P < 0.001) than in healthy controls, while no difference was found in the levels of anti-HSP60 antibodies. Low anti-HSP65 antibody levels were measured in patients with active CD and in both active and inactive UC, and only in IBD patients with no extraintestinal manifestations. In conclusion, our present findings indicate that an abnormal immune response to bacterial HSP65 or some epitopes of the protein may contribute to the dysregulation of host defenses against certain intestinal bacteria.