Symptoms Of Urinary Urgency Research Articles

Interstitial cystitis: Successfulmanagement by increasing urinary voiding intervals

A variant of the interstitial cystitis (IC) syndrome, minimal or no pain or significant pain that has been lessened by another therapy, can be clinically improved by retraining of the individual's voiding pattern. Patients with greater pain but capable of completing this protocol also may be helped. While this group of patients fills the diagnostic criteria of IC and has many of the classic changes, many differ in that they have minimal or no pain, while simultaneously they have a dysfunctional bladder as expected from long-term low-volume voiding. All patients were placed on a protocol which focused on progressively increasing intervals between voids. Fifteen to thirty minutes initially were added to their present voiding time. The same increase was added to the voiding pattern every three or four weeks until an interval of three to four hours between voids was achieved. Twenty-one patients fit the criteria to be entered into this study. Overall 71 percent (15/21) had successful management of their symptoms and reported a 50 percent decrease in their symptoms of urinary urgency, frequency, and nocturia. Nineteen percent (4/21) reported 25 percent decrease in symptoms and 10 percent had no change. Presence of significant pain adversely affects outcome, 3/7 (with pain) improvements versus 12/14 (without pain). For all patients there was a significant increase in bladder capacity (92 mL average before study and 179 mL after) and average daily voids (13.2/day prestudy and 7.4 post-therapy). These differences in voided profiles were statistically significant (p value less than 0.01).

Two faller risk functions for geriatric assessment unit patients

This study was done in order to construct a simple clinical failer predictor model, which quantifies risk for the individual elderly patient. Fifty patients sequentially admitted to a geriatric assessment unit were assessed systematically at admission for six potential failer risk factors: age, gait, speed, gait quality, gender, symptoms of urinary urgency, and symptoms of dizziness. Falls were systematically recorded during admission. Only age, abnormal gait, and self-selected gait speed were found to be associated with fallers. Multivariate analysis revealed that the two best models for predicting those most likely to be fallers were the factor subgroups: 1) age plus gait quality, and 2) age plus gait speed. The difference between the two models is the choice of gait measure incorporated. Gait speed is a continuous quantitative variable with no known limit of normal. Gait quality is a qualitative variable where abnormal gait is defined by clinical criteria. The predictability of each model was verified in another population (N=78).