[The static and dynamic profiles of urethral pressure in women with stress incontinence and in healthy controls].

The study presents the results of urethral pressure profile measurements in 3 groups of women: continent nulliparous, continent parous and stress incontinent women. The maximum urethral closure pressure, the functional urethral length and the length of continence zone are compared. The healthy control groups (both parous and nulliparous) show much higher maximum urethral closure pressures than those mentioned in literature. No difference is evident between continent parous and continent nulliparous which suggests that vaginal delivery at term does not necessarily impair urethral sphincteric function. On the other hand women with similar age and parity with stress incontinence have a marked decrease of maximum urethral closure pressure at rest and demonstrate inability to increase it by volitional contraction of the pelvic floor. These findings support the idea of the leading role of sphincteric incompetence in stress incontinence. The functional urethral length and the length of continence zone show no significant differences among the investigated groups which implies that they are of no importance for the occurrence of stress incontinence.