Imaging Techniques in the Evaluation of the Neurogenic Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction (NLUTD)

Abstract

According to ICI 2017, imaging of the upper urinary tract upper urinary tract (UUT) is indicated in cases of NLUTD and urinary incontinence with high risk of renal damage (due to high storage and/or voiding detrusor pressure, e.g., myelodysplasia, spinal cord injury) (Abrams et al., 6th International Consultation on Incontinence (2017) Tokyo, in Incontinence, 6th edn. (September 2016)).There are, however, only few guidelines suggesting how frequently this evaluation has been indicated and what test included. European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines (2021) (Blok et al., EAU Guidelines. Edn. Presented at the EAU Annual Congress Milan 2021 (ISBN 978-94-92671-13-4. EAU Guidelines Office, Arnhem, The Netherlands). http://uroweb.org/guidelines/compilations-of-all-guidelines/) and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines (NICE 2012) (Urinary incontinence in neurological disease: management of lower urinary tract dysfunction in neurological disease, 2019 surveillance of urinary incontinence in neurological disease: Assessment and management (2012, NICE guideline CG148). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg148) have similar although slightly different recommendations. Recently, the Canadian Urological Association (CUA) and the American Urological Association/Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine, and Urogenital Reconstruction (AUA/SUFU) published their guidelines for NLUTD (Kavanagh et al., Can. Urol. Assoc. J. 13(6) (2019). https://doi.org/10.5489/cuaj.5912; Ginsberg et al., J. Urol. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000002235). Common recommendations of all guidelines are to assess the urinary tract at regular intervals in high-risk patients. This chapter describes imaging techniques in the evaluation of the patients with NLUTD.KeywordsNLUTDImagingUltrasoundComputer tomographyfMRIPETSPECT