C-reactive protein (CRP) levels of serum and peritoneal fluid in women with endometriosis

Background: Endometriosis is defined as the existence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus. Diagnosis of endometriosis is a challenging theme. Despite the broad search for innovative laboratory tests and advances in imaging technologies, there are still no easy, non-invasive diagnostic tests available. Due to inflammatory process of endometriosis, still C-reactive protein (CRP) level may be the target of initial screening. The aim of this study was to investigate CRP levels as a marker of inflammatory process in serum and peritoneal fluid of patients with endometriosis. Materials and Methods: In a case control study, 179 patients with endometriosis (N = 90) and without endometriosis (N = 89) were evaluated. The venous blood samples were obtained from all patients before laparoscopy and the peritoneal fluid samples were collected from pelvis before any manipulation. Student’s t-test was applied to compare the parameters between two groups. Findings: There was no significant difference between the CRP serum level in patients with endometriosis and infertile women without endometriosis. There was a significant difference in peritoneal level of CRP between case and control groups (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The findings suggested that measurement of this marker in patients’ serum or plasma cannot be used to diagnose endometriosis. It is further recommended that a combination of different markers might be helpful in this regard that could be studied in future. Key words :  Endometriosis, inflammation, C-reactive protein, serum, peritoneal fluid, infertility