Predictive value of maximum urethral closure pressure, urethral hypermobility and urethral incompetence in the diagnosis of clinically significant female genuine stress incontinence.

PURPOSE

We determined the value of urethral hypermobility, maximum urethral closure pressure (MUCP) and urethral incompetence in the diagnosis of stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this study 369 women with clinical symptoms suggestive of SUI without symptoms of bladder overactivity were evaluated in regard to urethral incompetence, urethral hypermobility and mean MUCP. The cohort was divided into 2 groups according to continence/incontinence status. ROC curves were used to test the performance of the various predicting factors. These factors were combined in forward stepwise logistic regression to find the cutoff point that simultaneously optimized sensitivity and specificity.

RESULTS

Continent and incontinent patients differed with regards to urethral incompetence and hypermobility (each p <0.0001). Incontinent patients had a greater probability of a higher grade of each factor. Even after adjusting for the older age of incontinent patients by ANCOVA. MUCP was significantly lower in the incontinent group (p <0.001). The best univariate optimized cutoff point for discriminating continence from incontinence was obtained with urethral incompetence greater than grade I.

CONCLUSIONS

The best single predictor of clinically significant SUI is urethral incompetence, followed by urethral hypermobility and MUCP. When combining several factors, namely grade II urethral incompetence with grade III hypermobility, grade III urethral incompetence with grades I to III hypermobility and grade IV urethral incompetence with or without urethral hypermobility, all indicated more than a 90% probability of clinically significant SUI.