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Volume 4 No. 2, April 2009 |
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Serum and Peritoneal Fluid Levels of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in Patients with Endometriosis before and After Treatment Lamiaa Al-Ahwal(1) & Sahar Hazaa(2)
Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology(1) and Clinical
Pathology(2), Faculty of Medicine Tanta University, Egypt
Aim: This study was done to asses serum and peritoneal fluid
concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor in patients
with endometriosis before and after treatment. Patients & Methods:
This study was carried out on 40 infertile patients. They were
divided after laparoscopy into two groups according to the stage of
endometriosis group(1) including 20 patients with minimal to mild
emdometriosis and group(2) including 20 patients with moderate to
severe endometriosis. VEGF levels were measured by enzyme linked
immunosorbant assay (ELIZA) in serum and peritoneal fluid of all
patients before and after treatment. Results: Serum and peritoneal
fluid levels of VEGF were significantly increased in cases with
moderate to severe endometriosis compared to cases with minimal to
mild stage. VEGF levels in peritoneal fluid were greater than that
of serum levels with significant increase in patients with moderate
to severe stage. Reduction of VEGF levels in serum and peritoneal
fluid was achieved in all cases after treatment. This reduction was
significant only in patients with moderate to severe endometriosis.
Conclusions: VEGF levels in serum and peritoneal fluid can be used
as a marker to evaluate the progress of the disease. Serum VEGF can
be used instead of second look laparoscopy for follow up of the
disease during treatment. Large scale studies are needed to draw
valuable conclusions and recommendations.
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