Stimulated release of urine histamine in interstitial cystitis.

AbstractThe diagnosis of interstitial cystitis is primarily made based on clinical and cystoscopic findings with exclusion of other bladder diseases. Despite all of the efforts at definitive identification, interstitial cystitis lacks universal objective findings. Mast cell activation with associated histamine release has been postulated as an etiological factor leading to the symptom complex associated with interstitial cystitis. To investigate this hypothesis, a 3-step controlled prospective study was conducted.In step 1 reliability of urine histamine assay was critically examined, and the assay was established to be simple, reliable and valid. In step 2 random spot urine histamine levels (basal state) were measured in 25 noninterstitial cystitis and 15 interstitial cystitis patients (22.1 ± 0.95ng./ml. versus 19.2 ± 1.19ng./ml.). There was no significant difference in the random urine histamine levels between the 2 groups (p >0.05). In step 3 urine histamine levels were measured before and after hydrod...