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. 2021 May-Jun;47(3):525-532.
doi: 10.1590/S1677-5538.IBJU.2020.0278.

Luts-V: A new simplified score for assessing lower urinary tract symptoms in men

Caroline Santos Silva  1 , Ueslei Menezes de Araujo  2 , Mateus Andrade Alvaia  2 , Kátia Santana Freitas  1 , Taciana Leonel Nunes Tiraboschi  1 , Cristiano Mendes Gomes  3 , José de Bessa Júnior  1   4
Affiliations

Luts-V: A new simplified score for assessing lower urinary tract symptoms in men

Caroline Santos Silva et al. Int Braz J Urol. 2021 May-Jun.

Abstract

Objectives: Develop and validate a new and simplified score for evaluating the lower urinary tract symptoms in men.

Materials and methods: We modified the existing visual prostate symptom score, including changes in the images, sequence, and new alternatives, resulting in a new visual score (LUTS visual score-LUTS-V). For the validation of the new tool, we used the International Prostatic Symptom Score as the gold-standard and the new LUTS-V to 306 men. The total IPSS score and the total LUTS-V score of each subject were evaluated to determine the agreement between the two instruments. ROC curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and best cut-off of LUTS-V. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratios were used to describe the diagnostic properties.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 59 [52-87] years. There was a significant correlation between LUTS-V and IPSS. (r=0.72 (p<0.0001). The Bland-Altman analyzes demonstrate good agreement between the two questionnaires (bias=5.6%). LUTS-V demonstrated excellent diagnostic accuracy in detecting the most serious cases with an area under the ROC curve of 83% [78-87%] 95% CI. p <0.001). LUTS-V >4 was the best threshold, with a sensitivity of 74% and specificity of 78%.

Conclusions: LUTS-V is a simple, self-administered tool with a significant discriminatory power to identify subjects with moderate to severe LUTS and may represent a useful instrument for the diagnosis and follow-up of men with urinary symptoms.

Keywords: Men; Prostate; Validation Study [Publication Type].

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Pictograms in which the patient indicates his assessment of the force of his urinary stream (question 1), urinary frequency during the night (question 2), and day (question 3), and his feelings about his bladder symptoms (quality of life question).
Figure 2
Figure 2. The figure shows the Spearman's correlation between the IPSS and LUTS-V, including quality of life and Bland-Altman plot showing agreement between the IPSS and LUTS-V.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Rates decreased in correlation with the pictograms depicting the urinary stream's force, with the following median maximum urinary flow values.
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