Polimorfismo genético em endometriose: tendências na produção científica

Abstract

Endometriosis is characterized by the presence of endometrial tissue, localized outside the uterine cavity. The prevalence is about 6 to 10%. Concerning the etiopathogenesis, several theories are accepted although disruption in endometrial molecular biology seems to be fundamental to the development of endometriosis ectopic focuses. Women with the disease may be asymptomatic or may present complaints of dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain and/or infertility. Although the definitive diagnosis needs a surgical intervention, mainly by laparoscopy, many findings obtained by physical examination, imaging and laboratory tests can predict, with a high degree of reliability, that the patient has endometriosis. The current trend is the search for strategies that can identify potential genes causing the disease. The analysis of polymorphisms has contributed to a better understanding about the genetic nature of endometriosis. Thus, it becomes important to address, by quantitative analysis, the development of knowledge about endometriosis. In order to do so, there are methodologies for assessing scientific production in a certain field, such as scientometrics analysis. The purpose of this study was to characterize the scientific literature on endometriosis and polymorphisms by 2013 in order to assess trends and development prospects in the field of genetics with the use of this instrumentation, through scientometric analysis. A literature survey was conducted on the site Scopus, using the words “polymorphism* genetic* AND endometriosis* OR molecular* marker* AND endometriosis*”. We used different approaches to assess the articles: publication type, number of articles/year, authors, field, scientific magazines, and the impact factor of journals among other factors. As a result, there was an increase in the number of publications in endometriosis and polymorphism over the years, especially in developed countries. There was significant association with infertility, ovarian cancer and endometrioma. Much research assessed genes such as GSTM1 and PROGINS.