Silva Nalinda, Senanayake Hemantha, Waduge Vajira
Lecturer in Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka.
BMC Res Notes. 2013 Jan 14;6:13. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-6-13.
Endometriosis is characterized by the persistence of endometrial tissue in ectopic sites outside the uterine cavity. Presence of nickel, cadmium and lead in ectopic endometrial tissue has been reported previously. While any association between blood levels of nickel and endometriosis is yet to be described in literature, conflicting reports are available with regards to cadmium and lead levels in blood and urine.
In fifty patients with endometriosis and fifty age-matched controls confirmed by laparoscopy or laparotomy, whole blood samples were collected and digested using supra pure 65% HNO3. Whole blood levels of nickel and lead were measured using Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF) while cadmium levels were evaluated using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFASS). Women with endometriosis had significantly higher (P=0.016) geometric mean (95% CI) whole blood nickel levels [2.6(1.9-3.3) μg/L] as compared to women without endometriosis [0.8 (0.7-0.9) μg/L]. Whole blood levels of cadmium and lead were similar between the two groups.
Although women with endometriosis in this study population had higher levels of nickel in whole blood compared to controls, whether nickel could be considered as an aetiological factor in endometriosis remains inconclusive in view of the smaller sample that was evaluated.
子宫内膜异位症的特征是子宫内膜组织在子宫腔外的异位部位持续存在。先前已有报道异位子宫内膜组织中存在镍、镉和铅。虽然镍的血液水平与子宫内膜异位症之间的任何关联尚未在文献中描述，但关于血液和尿液中镉和铅水平的报道相互矛盾。
在50例经腹腔镜检查或剖腹手术确诊的子宫内膜异位症患者和50例年龄匹配的对照者中，采集全血样本并使用超纯65%硝酸进行消化。使用全反射X射线荧光法（TXRF）测量全血中镍和铅的水平，同时使用石墨炉原子吸收光谱法（GFASS）评估镉的水平。与无子宫内膜异位症的女性[0.8（0.7 - 0.9）μg/L]相比，子宫内膜异位症女性的全血镍几何平均水平[2.6（1.9 - 3.3）μg/L]显著更高（P = 0.016）。两组之间全血镉和铅水平相似。
尽管在本研究人群中，子宫内膜异位症女性的全血镍水平高于对照组，但鉴于评估的样本量较小，镍是否可被视为子宫内膜异位症的病因仍尚无定论。
