ABSTRACT
This study is aimed to measure the cytokine RANTES concentration in both the peritoneal fluid and serum of women with and without endometriosis, to test the potential utility of this cytokine as a non-invasive marker of endometriosis. This study includes 30 patients for whom laparoscopy was done for various indications, 15 of them were having endometriosis of various degrees of severity, were taken as group I [cases]. The other 15 patients were having normal laparoscopic findings and were classified as group II [control]. RANTES concentrations were measured in peritoneal fluid and serum of both groups using [ELISA] technique. It was found that there is a highly significant increase of RANTES concentration [P < 0.001] in both peritoneal fluid [2299.4 +/- 1417 pg/ml] and serum [93.1 +/- 29.1 pg/ml] of patients in group I than that in peritoneal fluid [6.50 +/- 289.8 pg/ml] and serum [45.56 +/- 22.27 pg/ml] of patients in group II. It is concluded from this study that peritoneal fluid and serum concentration of RANTES is significantly increased in patients with endometriosis with a significant positive correlation with the increased severity of the disease and its measurement in the serum could be used as a non-invasive marker in patients with endometriosis