Measurement of serum and peritoneal fluid LH concentrations as a diagnostic tool for human endometriosis

Illera JC, J. C. Illera, Silván G, Gema Silván, G Silván, Illera MJ, M J Illera, MJ Illera, Munro CJ, CJ Munro, C J Munro, B A Lessey, Lessey BA, Illera M, M. Illera
Reproduction (Cambridge, England) · 2001 · vol. 121(5) , pp. 761–769 · doi:10.1530/rep.0.1210761 · PMID:11427164 · W2126642988
Diagnostic accuracy OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 12 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-27 ⓘ

An enzymeimmunoassay for serum and peritoneal fluid LH demonstrated significantly higher LH concentrations in women with endometriosis compared to controls, suggesting its diagnostic potential.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

A rapid, sensitive enzymeimmunoassay for the measurement of LH concentrations in serum and peritoneal fluid samples of healthy women and women with endometriosis is reported. The ligand (LH) was captured by a readily available, widely used and well-characterized monoclonal antibody (mAb, 518B7) generated against the beta subunit of bovine LH. This mAb, although specific for LH, shows very little species specificity and detects LH by radioimmunoassay in humans. A polyclonal antiserum raised in rabbits against hCG was conjugated to horseradish peroxidase and was used as the second antibody signal. This anti-hCG antiserum crossreacts with LH. The enzymeimmunoassay uses the standard human LH (hLH) preparations (NIADDK-hLH-I-3, AFP-827OB) and results are based on the relative concentrations of LH in serum and peritoneal fluid. Total assay time was < 3 h. The range of the standard curve was 0.002-0.500 ng LH per well and the lowest concentration of hLH that could be distinguished from zero concentration was 0.15 +/- 0.02 ng ml(-1) serum and 0.058 +/- 0.021 ng ml(-1) peritoneal fluid. Clinical diagnostic parameters for the LH enzymeimmunoassay showed a sensitivity of 85.71%, specificity 92.50%, efficiency 88.54%, positive predictive value 94.11% and negative predictive value 82.22%. The study was retrospective. Serum LH concentrations of women with endometriosis were 13.67 +/- 7.21 ng ml(-1), whereas serum LH concentrations of women in the control group were 4.52 +/- 2.03 ng ml(-1). One-way ANOVA showed significant differences (P < 0.001) between women with endometriosis and control groups. Women in the control group had peritoneal fluid LH values of 5.65 +/- 2.43 ng ml(-1), whereas peritoneal fluid LH values of 64.06 +/- 16.44 ng ml(-1) were obtained in women with endometriosis (P < 0.001). A cycle-dependent pattern of serum and peritoneal fluid LH concentration was observed in women in the control group, which was not observed in the peritoneal fluid of the group with endometriosis. The application of this assay to serum or peritoneal fluid samples provides the attractive possibility that it could be included in the panel of markers used for diagnosis of endometriosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Ascitic Fluid Endometriosis Luteinizing Hormone Luteinizing Hormone Adult Adult Animals Animals Antibodies, Monoclonal Antibodies, Monoclonal Ascitic Fluid Ascitic Fluid Chorionic Gonadotropin Chorionic Gonadotropin Chorionic Gonadotropin Endometriosis Endometriosis False Positive Reactions False Positive Reactions Female

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (10)

Cited by (12)

SciLite annotations

organisms 5
human humans rabbits horseradish human

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-31T06:08:22.434808+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T20:59:59.992071+00:00
scilite
last seen: 2026-05-18T04:57:49.680383+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-10-13T06:25:51.201866+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK