[Acute phase proteins (C-reactive protein, orosomucoid, haptoglobin)--specific markers in the diagnosis of inflammatory adnexal diseases].

The group of patients discussed here comprises 51 women admitted to hospital with diagnosed adnexitis. Twenty-seven patients whose diagnosis was confirmed by the correlation of pathologic laboratory parameters with examination findings or by laparoscopy or laparatomy were defined as adnexitis-positive. Apart from clinical examination findings, the evaluation analysis also included blood sedimentation rate, leukocytes and body temperature, as well as the acute-phase proteins C-reactive protein, orosomucoid, and haptoglobin. It was found that both clinical examination findings and normal laboratory parameters, as they have been set up to the present in normal clinical routine, were only partially useful in the diagnosis of an inflammatory adnexal lesion. Ultrasonic examination findings resulted in unequivocally positive or negative findings in roughly one-half of the cases. In contrast, the 27 inpatients receiving treatment for adnexitis had pathologically increased levels of C-reactive protein. In all 24 cases in which an inflammatory adnexal lesion was ruled out, a normal concentration (less than 0.6 mg/dl) of the same protein was found. Similarly good results were arrived at in the analysis of orosomucoid and haptoglobin. By means of follow-up controls of the acute-phase proteins, as opposed to measurement of BSR and leukocyte count, the success of treatment could also be determined unequivocally. For routine clinical procedures analysis of the inflammation marker C-reactive protein seems to be sufficient, since no additional information about the inflammatory lesion was obtained by assay of the other acute-phase proteins.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)