Raman spectroscopy as a diagnostic method for endometriosis disease (Conference Presentation)

Endometriosis is a condition in which the endometrium grows outside of the uterus. One of its severe effects is that it may cause infertility. Investigating only the symptoms of the disease is insufficient for the diagnosis. The correct and the exact diagnosis can be done by laparoscopy. During the disease the amount of molecules such as lipids, proteins and some antigens (i.e. CA125) in the blood serum changes. Raman spectroscopy is a vibrational spectroscopy technique which can analyze specific spectral patterns, substances and molecular changes with high specificity. In this study, Raman spectroscopy has been used as a tool for detecting the changes in blood serum contents for diagnosis of endometriosis. In our study, the Raman spectra of blood sera of 49 patients with 45 healthy women have been compared. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) methods are used in the analysis. The results indicated that 1003 cm-1 Raman band (phenylalanine) decreased for the women with endometriosis. In addition, a decrease in 1448 cm-1 band shows that the total amount of proteins decreased. The changes in the bands at 1155 and 1521 cm-1 imply that the amount of carotenoids diminished during the disease which is an expected effect of endometriosis. According to the analysis results, the sensitivity and the specificity of the Raman spectroscopy analysis were found to be 98.8% and 91.0% respectively for the detection of endometriosis. As a complementary method to laparoscopy, Raman spectroscopy can be used for diagnosis of endometriosis.