International journal of urology : official journal of the Japanese Urological Association
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Case Reports
Is interstitial cystitis an allergic disorder?: A case of interstitial cystitis treated successfully with anti-IgE.
Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic disorder diagnosed by symptomatology of pelvic pain and urinary frequency, which are extremely variable and unpredictable fluctuating among patients. IC has recently been found combined with some allergic disorders and histopathologic abnormalities resembling that of allergic disorders, including mast cell activation, histamine release and eosinophil infiltration. Therefore, it could be cautiously postulated that IC is one of the allergic disorders of the urogenital system. ⋯ According to the published literature, we postulate that interstitial cystitis might be one of the IgE mediated, mast cell driven allergic disorders of the urogenital system. Therefore, in this case, the patient's bladder symptoms are successfully controlled primarily by anti-IgE therapy and the improvement could be maintained by SIT. We report, for the first time, a case of interstitial cystitis with allergic rhinitis and asthma, successfully treated by anti-IgE therapy and specific immunotherapy.