Immunoglobulin and Complement Levels in Liver Cirrhosis and Ovarian Cancer Ascites Patients

The pathological accumulation of abdominal fluid is due to multiple causes often associated with either peritoneal or non-peritoneal diseases. Cirrhosis of liver is a chronic disorder, where ascites develops in advanced stages with alteration in humoral and innate immunity where as in ovarian cancer most of the cases ascites develops in the early stages after the onset of the disease.The aim of this study was to estimate the concentrations of serum and ascitic fluid immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, IgM) and complement components (C3, C4) levels in ascitic patients with liver cirrhosis in comparison to ovarian cancer and if significant differences are found, our question was, could it be used for screening. The present study was performed on 170 ascitic patients with liver cirrhosis, 95 ovarian cancer and 100 healthy serum samples served as normal controls. The study showed significantly increased levels of serum IgG, IgA and grossly decreased levels of complement C3 and C4 in liver cirrhosis patients when compared to ovarian cancer and controls (p<0.001). Significantly decreased levels of serum IgA in ovarian cancer was observed and not much significant changes were observed in serum IgM levels in both the groups. Ascitic fluid IgG, IgM, C3 and C4 were found to be increased in ovarian cancer patients when compared to that of liver cirrhosis (p<0.001). Deficiency or enhanced levels of complement components and immunoglobulins would lead to altered immunity and causes aggressive clinical manifestations. Therefore, follow up of complement and immunoglobulin concentrations would help the patients to recognize different forms of ascites and increased risk for the development of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis.