| Summary: | Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a poorly understood syndrome affecting up to 6.5% of adult women in the U.S. The lack of broadly accepted objective laboratory markers for this condition hampers efforts to diagnose and treat this condition. To identify biochemical markers for IC/BPS, we applied mass spectrometry-based global metabolite profiling to urine specimens from a cohort of female IC/BPS subjects from the Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) Research Network. These analyses identified multiple metabolites capable of discriminating IC/BPS and control subjects. Of these candidate markers, etiocholan-3α-ol-17-one sulfate (Etio-S), a sulfoconjugated 5-β reduced isomer of testosterone, distinguished female IC/BPS and control subjects with a sensitivity and specificity >90%. Among IC/BPS subjects, urinary Etio-S levels are correlated with elevated symptom scores (symptoms, pelvic pain, and number of painful body sites) and could resolve high- from low-symptom IC/BPS subgroups. Etio-S-associated biochemical changes persisted through 3–6 months of longitudinal follow up. These results raise the possibility that an underlying biochemical abnormality contributes to symptoms in patients with severe IC/BPS.
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