Anti-Endometrium Antibody (Anti-EMAb)

Anti-endometrial antibodies have been detected in the serum of women with endometriosis using immunofluorescence (Mathur et al, 1982; Wild and Shivers, 1985), immunodiffusion (Badawy et al, 1984), passive haemagglutination (Chihal et al, 1986; Badawy et al, 1990), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Kennedy et al, 1990b) and Western blots (Mathur et al, 1988, 1990). Most studies show a higher prevalence of autoantibodies in women with endometriosis than in controls.

However, Switchenko et al (1991), failed to demonstrate consistently higher concentrations of antiendometrial antibodies in women with endometriosis using immunofluorescence, haemagglutination, ELISA, or Western blotting, and concluded mat the case for specific anti-endometrial antibodies remains unproven.