Painful bladder syndrome--a clinical and immunopathological study.

Painful bladder syndrome is a clinical diagnosis in patients with symptoms of varying severity which always include frequency and suprapubic pain and occasionally include dysuria, nocturia and urgency persisting for more than 3 months with no loss of bladder capacity and no overt infection. Immunofluorescence studies of biopsy specimens in 38 female patients were assessed and correlated with the duration and severity of symptoms, and also with routine histology (including mast cell infiltration and integrity of the glycosaminoglycans layer), in order to assess the role of immunological mechanisms in this distressing condition. The results indicated that submucosal angiogenesis and persistence of antigen-antibody complex in vessel walls could be responsible for this syndrome.