SENSORY URGENCY - HOW FULL IS YOUR BLADDER

Objective-To investigate whether women with sensory urgency have an abnormal perception of bladder fullness. Design-Prospective observational study. Setting-Urodynamic Unit, St George's Hospital, London. Subjects-15 women with sensory urgency, 15 women with idiopathic detrusor instability and 15 without symptoms of frequency or urgency (control group). Interventions-All the women attended for cystometry. Each was asked to complete a visual analogue score of how full she perceived her bladder to be on a scale from 1 to 10. This was done before filling cystometry and at three times during bladder filling. At each time actual filled volume was noted. Main outcome measures-Maximum bladder capacity and individual perception of bladder fullness. Results-Women with sensory urgency and detrusor instability had similar maximum bladder capacity although values in both groups were significantly lower than in the control group; thus percentage of maximum bladder capacity was used for analysis. Linear regression was performed for each group of patients and a predicted visual analogue score at 25, 50 and 75% of capacity calculated. These were compared between groups by rank analysis of variance. There was no significant difference between sensory urgency and detrusor instability. However, at 25, 50 and 75% of capacity, both groups had a significantly higher score than the control group. Conclusions-This abnormal perception would explain symptoms of frequency and urgency in these two groups. These results also confirm the similarity between detrusor instability and sensory urgency.