Extremely high serum CA19-9 level along with elevated D-dimer in assisting detection of ruptured ovarian endometriosis

Rupture Endometriomas Presenting as Acute Abdomen Infection in Hasty and Limited Resources Setting: A Pitfall Not to Miss - A Case Report

Introduction

Abdominal pain is a diagnostic problem that requires immediate care and treatment for surgeons and gynecologists. The causes of abdominal pain in women of childbearing age range from benign and temporary to potentially life threatening. Rare etiologies such as spontaneous ruptured endometrioma are often not included in the radar of diagnosis due to their rarity and non-specific signs and symptoms in the patient. This case report aimed to show a resemblance between the clinical symptoms of acute abdomen in diffuse peritonitis due to hollow viscus perforation and spontaneous ruptured endometrioma.

Case Description

A 42-year-old woman presented to our hospital with abdominal pain. She had a history of fever for two weeks. She came from a tropical rural area where typhoid fever is common. She was advised to undergo emergency laparotomy because of the suspicion of diffuse peritonitis due to a hollow viscus perforation due to typhoid infection. Because of acute abdominal pain, a vertical incision was made to explore her abdominal cavity, and chocolate-like fluid and ovarian cysts were found during surgery. The diagnosis was changed to diffuse peritonitis due to spontaneous rupture of the endometrioma bilaterally.

Conclusion

This case suggests that the exact diagnosis and cause of abdominal pain varies. As the current gold standard for endometrioma is laparoscopy, surgeons must prepare a collaborative approach to the cause of the disease.

Crimson clues: advancing endometriosis detection and management with novel blood biomarkers

Endometriosis is an inflammatory condition affecting approximately 10% of the female-born population. Despite its prevalence, the lack of noninvasive biomarkers has contributed to an established global diagnostic delay. The intricate pathophysiology of this enigmatic disease may leave signatures in the blood, which, when detected, can be used as noninvasive biomarkers. This review provides an update on how investigators are utilizing the established disease pathways and innovative methodologies, including genome-wide association studies, next-generation sequencing, and machine learning, to unravel the clues left in the blood to develop blood biomarkers. Many blood biomarkers show promise in the discovery phase, but because of a lack of standardized and robust methodologies, they rarely progress to the development stages. However, we are now seeing biomarkers being validated with high diagnostic accuracy and improvements in standardization protocols, providing promise for the future of endometriosis blood biomarkers.

Clinical features of patients with previous spontaneous rupture of ovarian endometrioma operated electively: a case-control study

BACKGROUND

The aim of the study is to investigate the proportion and clinical features of previous spontaneously ruptured ovarian endometrioma among women who underwent elective surgery for endometrioma.

METHODS

This retrospective study was based on a cohort of elective surgeries for endometrioma performed by the same gynecologic team at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2017 to October 2022. Patients diagnosed with previous spontaneously ruptured endometrioma during elective surgery were enrolled in the ruptured group. In the same cohort, patients with unruptured endometrioma treated during the same period were selected as the unruptured group by 1:2 matching according to age. Demographic and clinical information were collected and compared between two groups.

RESULTS

A total of 422 patients in the cohort were diagnosed with endometrioma. There were 38 patients (9.0%) in ruptured group and 76 patients in unruptured group. All enrolled participants were treated by laparoscopic surgery. In ruptured group, 86.8% patients had a history of acute abdominal pain, which was only 13.2% in unruptured group (P < 0.001). Compared to unruptured group, patients diagnosed with ruptured endometrioma had a lower BMI (P = 0.021), larger maximum diameter of endometrioma (P = 0.040), higher proportion of cul-de-sac partial obliteration rather than complete obliteration (P = 0.003).

CONCLUSIONS

Spontaneous rupture of endometrioma is not rare. The proportion of spontaneous rupture of endometrioma in our study was higher than that reported in the literatures. In women with endometrioma, the onset of acute abdominal pain should be considered a rupture of cyst, especially in patients with big cysts.