Abstract
Aim of study. To clarify the impact of the presence of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and activation of the acute phase response on the serum level of tetranectin (Se-TN), a potential new tumor marker for ovarian cancer.
Material and methods. The study group consisted of 70 patients with a laparoscopically verified PID and 47 healthy female controls.
Results. Lower Se-TN levels were found for the PID group compared to the control group (p<0.0001). It was not possible to relate the decreases in Se-TN levels to any distinct bacterial strain. Neither was it possible to find any correlation between Se-TN and severity of PID (p=0.5). A significant positive correlation was found between Se-TN and ALB (p<0.001). A just significant negative correlation was found between Se-TN and C-reactive protein (CRP) (p= 0.04). while no correlation was found with any of the other acute phase reactants. Highly significant correlations were found between all the acute phase reactants and grade of PID.
Conclusions. A slight, but significant reduction in Se-TN was found in PID patients. The decrease was minor compared to the reported findings of very low Se-TN levels for ovarian cancer patients. However, the finding is important in the assessment of TN used as a potential screening marker for ovarian cancer, or as a diagnostic tool for pelvic tumors. Furthermore, Se-TN does not seem to behave as a negative acute phase reactant.