Peritoneal fluid interleukin-6 in women with chronic pelvic pain
A Rapkin1, M Morgan, C Bonpane
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90095-1740, USA. arapkin@mednet.ucla.edu
Objective:
To determine the relationship between peritoneal fluid concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and chronic pelvic pain symptomatology in women with adhesions, endometriosis, or no obvious intraperitoneal pathology.
Design:
Clinical research study.
Setting:
Healthy volunteers in an academic research environment.
Patient(S):
Reproductive-aged women undergoing laparoscopy for the diagnosis of pelvic pain, infertility, or sterilization were selected.
Intervention(S):
Peritoneal fluid was collected at the time of the laparoscopy and later assayed for IL-6. Subjects completed a pelvic pain questionnaire, and operative reports were used to obtain the underlying diagnosis.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Interleukin-6 concentrations.
Result(S):
No correlation between the presence or absence of pelvic pain, findings of adhesions or endometriosis, and the concentration of peritoneal fluid IL-6 was observed.
Conclusion(S):
The cytokine IL-6 does not seem to play a role in the genesis of chronic pelvic pain in women with adhesions or endometriosis.
