IS INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS AN INFECTIOUS-DISEASE

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is manifest by years of urinary frequency, urgency, and bladder pain and on cystoscopy, is diagnosed by petechial hemorrhages or ulcers. The etiology is unknown; the prominent theorie s are that IC is an autoimmune disease or is linked to increased perme ability of the bladder mucosa. Although sought, no infectious agent ha s ever been identified. The disease has many characteristics of a chro nic infection and the author's opinion is that an infectious disease h as not been properly ruled out. To do so would require culture of blad der epithelium (not just urine) using special culture and non-culture techniques such as polymerase chain reaction. Infection can easily be integrated into the autoimmune and permeability theories of IC pathoge nesis. A possible analogue for this disease is chronic gastritis in wh ich Helicobacter pylori has been idenfied as an etiological agent.