Histopathological and histochemical observations on the endometrium in bilharzial patients

ABSTRACT

The endometrium of 40 patients with genital and/or extragenital bilharziasis and that obtained from 40 healthy women of comparable age and parity were examined histologically and histochemically for glycogen and enzymes. Bilharzial patients showed no bilharzial endometrial affection. However, in 7.5% of these subjects, there was persistent anovulation while all healthy women were ovulating. Luteal phase defects, evaluated by his-tological dating of endometrial biopsies, were present in 12.5% of bilharzial patients compared with 5% incidence in healthy women. Histochemical alterations in glycogen and the enzymes [succinic dehydrogenase, non-specific esterase, alkaline phosphatase and acid phosphatase] were observed in these women with corpus luteum insufficiency. It is believed that the increased incidence of anovulation and of corpus luteum insufficiency, with endometrial histochemical alterations, are partly resposible for the higher incidence of female infertility among the bilharzial population, reported by some authors; and observed in the present investigation