Minimally invasive measurement of vesical pressure for diagnosis of infravesical obstruction.
This study was focused on the clinical test of an improved and portable version of a previously described urethral connector (UC), designed for minimally invasive measurement of vesical pressure and diagnosis of infravesical obstruction in men. The conventional pressure-flow study (PFS) and the test with the new version of UC were applied to individuals reporting lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), who were then classified as obstructed or non-obstructed/equivocal based on the bladder outlet obstruction index (BOOI) from PFS data. Two-way analysis of variance was used to compare the values of urine flow rate and vesical pressure between methods and diagnoses. Vesical pressure and urine flow values were not significantly different between methods (P > 0.05), while the former was greater in the group classified as obstructed. The present results showed that the UC test can support the diagnosis of infravesical obstruction in a comparable way as that of the conventional urodynamic method, however with the advantages of simplicity and minimal invasiveness, having thus the potential to be an alternative method for long term follow-up of individuals reporting LUTS.