Painful Bladder Disease Research Articles

Urine eosinophil cationic protein in painful bladder disease.

Urine eosinophil cationic protein (U-ECP), blood eosinophils and eosinophils in bladder biopsy specimens were studied in 30 patients with painful bladder disease (15 with detrusor mastocytosis, i.e. interstitial cystitis (IC) (greater than or equal to 28 mast cells/mm2 in the detrusor muscle) and 15 patients without detrusor mastocytosis). In patients with IC the median concentration of U-ECP was 140 arbitrary u/l versus 14 arb. u/l in the remaining patients (P less than 0.001). The mean peripheral leukocyte count was significantly lower in the IC group (P less than 0.05). Tissue infiltration with eosinophils was found in 43% of the bladder biopsies from patients with IC compared with 4% of the biopsies in the remaining patients (P less than 0.05). A negative correlation between peripheral eosinophils and U-ECP was found in the patients with IC (r = 0.52, P less than 0.05). These results suggest that eosinophils are attracted to the inflammatory site in the bladder wall where ECP is released. Eosinophils thus seem to participate actively in the inflammatory process. U-ECP seems to provide valuable diagnostic information when diagnosing IC in patients with painful bladder disease. It is suggested that ECP might be involved in the process of tissue destruction in IC.

Urinary excretion of a metabolite of histamine (1,4-methyl-imidazole-acetic-acid) in painful bladder disease.

Thirteen patients with interstitial cystitis (detrusor mastocytosis) and 12 other patients with painful bladder disease without mastocytosis collected 24-h urine specimens that were analysed for the major metabolite of histamine, 1,4-methyl-imidazole-acetic-acid (1,4-MIAA), by reversed phase ion-pair high performance liquid chromatography. The median urinary excretion of 1,4-MIAA was 3.34 mg/24 h (range 1.47-4.66) in the patients with detrusor mastocytosis and 1.75 mg/24 h (range 0.18-4.30) in the other patients with a painful bladder (P less than 0.01). It was concluded from this study that patients with a painful bladder and detrusor mastocytosis had a significantly elevated urinary excretion of 1,4-MIAA compared with other painful bladder patients without mastocytosis, whose urinary excretion of 1,4-MIAA was within the normal range (0.72-2.34 mg/24 h). We suggest that the urinary excretion of 1,4-MIAA might be useful in the diagnosis of interstitial cystitis.

Glycosaminoglycans on the surface of the human urothelium: A preliminary report

AbstractGlycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are thought to be present in the mucous surface coat of the human urinary bladder and to play a role in the environmental adaptation of the bladder urothelium. A defective mucous surface coat might be involved in the pathogenesis of painful bladder disease (interstitial cystitis) of unknown etiology. By a new cystoscopic scraping method for obtaining the mucous surface coat of the bladder, we investigated four painful bladder patients and three controls (prostatic hypertrophy). Electrophoretic analysis of the surface coat revealed differences in the biochemical GAG‐composition of the surface coat between patients and controls. This preliminary study suggests the existence of GAGs in the mucous surface coat of the bladder and suggests that qualitative differences in the GAG composition might play a role in painful bladder disease.