Diagnostic Indicators for Blood Stasis Syndrome Patients with Gynaecological Diseases

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the important diagnostic indicators for blood stasis syndrome (BSS) in patients of childbearing age with gynaecological diseases.

METHODS

A partial least squared-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were applied to BSS symptoms data of patients with gynaecological diseases, and the diagnostic indicators used by doctors of Korean medicine (DKMs) among BSS patients with gynaecological diseases were also investigated.

RESULTS

A total of 103 patients of childbearing age with gynaecological diseases and 40 healthy controls were enrolled. Among the 103 patients, 63 (61.7%) and 40 (38.8%) were diagnosed with BSS and non-BSS, respectively, and BSS patients exhibited a more severe extent of disease. A score plot of PLS-DA showed clearly different patterns among the 3 groups. Based on the variable importance on projection of PLS-DA model, menstrual pains, dark lumps in the menstrual blood, ileocoecal tenderness and resistance, sharp pains, and sublingual varicosities were selected as the top five most important indicators. Moreover, more than 75% of DKMs chose dark lumps in menstrual blood, menstrual pain, and dark menstrual blood as the diagnostic indicators of BSS in patients with gynaecological diseases, and more than 49% of them also considered sharp pains, dark red tongue, sublingual varicosities, and tendency to bruise easily as diagnostic indicators of BSS.

CONCLUSION

DKMs focused on menstrual symptoms and certain gynaecological symptoms to diagnose BSS patients of childbearing age with female diseases.

Normal and SV40 transfected human peritoneal mesothelial cells produce IL-6 and IL-8: implication for gynaecological disease

High levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) have been demonstrated in the peritoneal fluid of benign and malignant gynaecological disease. Peritoneal monocytes and macrophages, endometrial cells, endometrial and peritoneal stromal cells and tumour cells produce these cytokines in vitro. To investigate whether normal human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMC) produce IL-6 and IL-8, HPMC were isolated from omental biopsies. Primary HPMC (P-HPMC) were transfected with pSV3-neo encoding SV40 large T antigen (T-HPMC) to generate sufficient cells. T-HPMC preserved the characteristics of P-HPMC as assessed by phase contrast microscopy, electron microscopy, immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry (FACS) analysis. T-HPMC retained a stable phenotype up to passage 14-19, whereas P-HPMC proliferated poorly and became senescent by passage 4-6. T-HPMC and P-HPMC constitutively expressed IL-6 and IL-8 at both protein and mRNA level. IL-6 and IL-8 production was stimulated by recombinant human interleukin-1beta (hIL-1beta) or human tumour necrosis factor-alpha (hTNF-alpha) alone in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, hIL-1beta or hTNF-alpha up-regulated IL-6 and IL-8 gene expression as determined by competitive PCR. In contrast, human interferon-gamma (hIFN-gamma) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) showed no effect. These data indicate that (1) T-HPMC lines mimic the morphological and functional features of P-HPMC, (2) P-HPMC and T-HPMC constituitively produce IL-6 and IL-8, which is enhanced by hIL-1beta and hTNF-alpha and (3) HPMC in vivo may participate in the pathogenesis of benign and malignant gynaecological disease.