Screening of endometrial carcinoma by lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme analysis of uterine fluid.

Determination of total activity for lactate dehydrogenase (LD) as well as electrophoretic separation and quantitative determination of the individual LD-isoenzymes was performed in 431 samples of uterine fluid obtained by the Gravlee Jet Wash technique or a described simple device for endouterine aspiration. The isoenzyme pattern for each menstrual phase was characteristic. The study population included 18 patients with endouterine neoplasia. All these malignancies were characterized by increased total LD-activity and/or abnormal distribution of the individual LD-isoenzymes compared to proliferative phase and would consequently have been discriminated at postmenstrual or postmenopausal examination. The LD-enzyme technique proved to be more accurate than cytology with approximately the same number of false positives.