Standardisation of Urethral Pressure Measurement: Report from the Standardisation Sub-Committee of the International Continence Society

摘要: INTRODUCTIONUrethralpressuremeasurementsareusedtoassessurethralclosure and voiding function.The lack of general agreementon an explicit de¢nition urethral pressure standardi-sation the methodology for measurement has limited theutilityofurethralpressuremeasurements.Thisreportde¢nesurethral recommends standards measure-ment to facilitate communication betweeninvestigators improve quality clinical practiceand research. The document can be integrated with earlierreports International Continence Society (ICS) Com-mittee on Standardisation special reference col-lated 2002 report [Abrams et al., 2002] ICSrecommendations goodurodynamic practice [manuscriptinpreparation].DEFINITION OF URETHRAL PRESSUREUrethral is de¢ned asthe £uid neededto just open a closed (collapsed) urethra [Gri⁄ths, 1985].This suggests that similarto ordinary pressure, i.e., scalar (does not havea direction) quantity single value at each point alongthelengthoftheurethra.The concept only useful if theurethra collapses easily attainable pressures zerocross-sectionalarea,asisnormallythecase.Theuseofacathe-ter introduces non-zero cross-sectional area (given by theprobe) changesthe natural shape ofthelumen.The eiecton measured small highly disten-sible/collapsibletubes[Gri⁄ths,1985].Microtip or ¢ber-optic catheters do measure ure-thral directly; they normal stress com-ponent surface transducer.This due totheinteractionbetweentheurethraltissueandthetransducersurface. It depends inpart onthe stiiness catheter andthe form probe. may cause directional variations inthemeasured‘‘urethralpressure’’whenthecatheterisrotatedwithin lumen. From it follows direc-tionalvariationsareartefacts.MATERIALS AND METHODSUrethralpressurescanbemeasuredatindividual locationswithintheurethra(pointpressures)oralongthewholelengthofthe (urethralpressurepro¢le).Registration maybeoverashortperiodoftimeoroveraprotractedperiod(ambu-latory). Measurement carried out diierent bladdervolumes subject positions (1) subjectatrest,or(2)duringcoughingorstraining.‘‘Pressuremeasure-mentsmadeintheurethraduringtheprocessofvoidingyieldan de¢nedabove.’’