Team eyes infrared route to diagnose endometriosis

The team found that tissue from women with the condition carried a distinct IR signature — thus paving the way for routine assessment such as that done for cervical smears.

‘We use spectroscopy as a method of deriving what we call a biochemical cell fingerprint of a tissue sample — and from that we can get an absorption spectrum associated with the functionality of the tissue we’ve looked at,’ project lead Dr Francis Martin of Lancaster told The Engineer.

Around 10 per cent of all young women experience endometriosis, which is the growth of endometrial tissue outside the uterus. It can be associated with severe abdominal pain, infertility and even cancer.

Diagnosis of endometriosis is difficult, however, with no effective screening test currently available. For women who are thought to have the condition, invasive laparoscopic surgery — which requires keyhole surgery through the abdomen — remains the only standard accurate diagnostic investigation. This carries the risk of complications and side-effects, as with any surgical procedure.