Objective: Bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is a chronic inflammatory disease and to date few treatments or tools for investigating the activity of the disease are available. This study evaluated whether luminal nitric oxide (NO) could be used as a marker for evaluation of therapeutic outcome in BPS/IC type 3C treated with the immunosuppressive agent cyclosporine A (CsA).
Material and methods: Ten patients with BPS/IC type 3C were given CsA for 16 weeks, initially at 3 mg/kg/day, and after 12 weeks the dose was scaled down. Formation of NO was measured in the urinary bladder with a silicone catheter, and symptom and bother score related to the disease were evaluated with the Interstitial Cystitis Symptom and Problem Index, every second week.
Results: All patients had elevated NO levels in the bladder initially and NO levels decreased during treatment with CsA. When the dose of CsA was lowered NO formation increased and after 2 weeks without medication, the NO formation was the same as before the study began.
Conclusions: The results indicate that measurement of NO is a tool for evaluating the response to anti-inflammatory treatment in patients with BPS/IC type 3C. NO could serve as a marker for assessing the activity of the inflammation.