Patent ID: 7122322

Claim:
A method of diagnosing endometriosis in a female patient suspected of having endometriosis by: (a) obtaining an endometrial tissue sample from the patient; and (b) detecting an increased level of an endometriotic haptoglobin in the sample from the patient, wherein the endometriotic haptoglobin is a haptoglobin designated ENDO-I secreted from endometrial and/or endometriotic tissue and having a molecular weight of between 35,000 and 55,000 Da at an isoelectric point of 4.0 to 5.5 as determined by 2-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D SDS-PAGE), as compared to the level of the endometriotic haptoglobin detected in an endometrial tissue sample of a female patient without endometriosis as indicative of endometriosis in the patient, wherein the detecting is performed with a method selected from immunohistochemical staining of the sample or immunoassay of secretions from the sample after in vitro incubation.