Role of some biomarkers in chronic pelvic pain for early detection of endometriosis in infertile women

Ashraf A. Foda, Ibrahim Ahmad Abdel Aal
In: Middle East Fertility Society Journal · 2012 · vol. 17(3) , pp. 187–194 · doi:10.1016/j.mefs.2012.06.002 · W2019229522
article OA: diamond CC0 ⤵ 16 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels were significantly higher in minimal-mild endometriosis patients compared to controls and moderate-severe cases, suggesting their utility as non-invasive early diagnostic biomarkers.

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

Abstract

Diagnosis of endometriosis in infertile women with chronic pelvic pain depends mainly on laparoscopy, but it has many risks. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of some biomarkers as a reliable non-invasive method for the diagnosis of early stages of endometriosis in infertile women with chronic pelvic pain. A total of 95 women who underwent laparoscopy were divided into two groups: control cases (30 cases) with no pathologic findings; and endometriosis patients (65 cases) {subdivided into stages 1–2 or minimal–mild (MM) and stages 3–4 or moderate–severe (MS) cases}. Blood was drawn on cycle days 6–10 and stored at −70 °C for subsequent analysis of IL-6, CA-125, TNF-α, HsCRP and VEGF levels. High levels of serum IL-6 and serum TNF-α were observed in MM endometriosis as compared to controls (P < 0.001) and to MS endometriosis (P < 0.05). Levels of serum CA-125, Hs-CRP & VEGF were significantly elevated in MS endometriosis when compared with MM endometriosis and controls (P < 0.001, P < 0.001 & P < 0.008 respectively). Serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels are reliable non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis of early stages of endometriosis because they increased significantly in early cases than in late cases. CA125, Hs-CRP & VEGF are significantly increased in late cases, so they cannot be used for early diagnosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_pain

Citation neighborhood

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. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (29)

Cited by (17)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK