Diagnosis of interstitial cystitis.

The diagnosis of interstitial cystitis is best based on the techniques necessary to elicit the criteria established at the conferences of the National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Essentially, this requires a thorough patient history, urodynamic evaluation, and cystoscopy carried out under anesthesia with hydrodistention of the bladder and bladder biopsy. Diagnosis of interstitial cystitis is tightly linked to its definition, and until the latter is crystal clear, the former will continue to be murky.