title: Evaluation of oxidative stress in endometriosis: A case-control study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent studies have suggested that oxidative stress (OS) may have a contribution in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. However, the results of previous studies regarding OS in endometriosis are controversial. The objective of this study was to compare the serum levels of OS markers in endometriosis versus the control group.
  
  
  METHODS
  This case-control study was carried out on 30 women with endometriosis aged 20-38 years presented to Fatemeh Zahra Infertility and Reproductive Health Research Center, Babol, Iran between March 2011 through November 2013. The serum samples of 40 women with same age were collected as the control group. The serum levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), carbonyl and iron were measured by photometric methods and compared between the patient and control groups using t-test. Also, we used ROC curve analysis to determine the discrimination ability of these markers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum iron in endometriosis patients was significantly higher than control (p<0.0001). Area under the ROC curve (AUC) for iron, MDA and carbonyl were 0.899, 0.648 and 0.530, respectively. Serum iron at cutoff value of 173.3 µg/dl exhibited high discrimination ability to discriminate endometriosis from control.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate that the high level of serum iron may promote OS in patients with endometriosis. In addition, serum Iron at cut off level of 173.3 exhibits high discriminative ability to distinguish patients with endometriosis from healthy subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alizadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran. ; Fatemeh Zahra Infertility and Reproductive Health Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Soleiman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahjoub
authors.affiliation: Fatemeh Zahra Infertility and Reproductive Health Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Seddigheh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Esmaelzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Karimollah
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hajian
authors.affiliation: Fatemeh Zahra Infertility and Reproductive Health Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Basirat
authors.affiliation: Fatemeh Zahra Infertility and Reproductive Health Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghasemi
keywords: Carbonyl.; Endometriosis; Iron; Malondialdehyde; Oxidative stress