ABSTRACT
The prognostic value of clinical factors, morphometric features and neopterin, a marker for macrophage activation, was investigated retrospectively in 68 ovarian carcinoma patients. Nuclear roundness was a good predictor of patient survival. About 50% of our patients showed neopterin concentrations above the cut-off level of 275 mumol/mol creatinine. Interestingly, those patients with elevated urinary neopterin concentration, and thus displaying a sign of activation of cell-mediated immunity, had a shorter survival than those with normal concentration. Applying a multivariate Cox regression analysis, the only independent parameters predicting patient survival were FIGO stage, residual disease, nuclear roundness and neopterin.
Subject(s)
Biopterins/analogs & derivatives , Cell Nucleus/pathology , Ovarian Neoplasms/pathology , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Biopterins/urine , Female , Humans , Immunity, Cellular , Macrophage Activation , Middle Aged , Neopterin , Ovarian Neoplasms/mortality , Ovarian Neoplasms/urine , Prognosis , Retrospective Studies , Survival AnalysisABSTRACT
We studied whether patients with systemic lupus erythematosus can have organ-specific antibodies directed against ovaries. With a recently developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system that uses both a soluble and an extractable corpus luteum antigen fraction, we detected both IgG and IgM antibodies in the sera of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (16 of 19, 84%). The highest levels of IgG antibodies were seen when the extractable organ fraction (ST80) was used as the antigen.
