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Multicenter Study
. 2025 Jan;32(1):103-109.
doi: 10.1111/iju.15603. Epub 2024 Oct 18.

Clinical manifestations of interstitial cystitis and bladder pain syndrome: Analysis of a patient registry in Japan

Aya Niimi  1 , Yoshiyuki Akiyama  1   2 , Yamanishi Tomonori  3 , Akira Furuta  4 , Tomohiro Matsuo  5 , Hikaru Tomoe  6 , Hidehiro Kakizaki  7 , Yoshihisa Matsukawa  8 , Teruyuki Ogawa  2 , Takahiko Mitsui  9 , Naoya Masumori  10 , So Inamura  11 , Yutaka Enomoto  12 , Akira Nomiya  13 , Daichi Maeda  14 , Yasuhiko Igawa  15 , Haruki Kume  1 , Yukio Homma  1   16
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Clinical manifestations of interstitial cystitis and bladder pain syndrome: Analysis of a patient registry in Japan

Aya Niimi et al. Int J Urol. 2025 Jan.

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: To describe clinical manifestations of patients with interstitial cystitis and bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) using a patient registry in Japan.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study utilized a patient registry supported by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. Patients were classified as IC or BPS based on cystoscopic findings. Data on demographics, comorbidities, symptom severity, pain intensity, and bladder function were collected and we evaluated the differences in clinical characteristics between IC and BPS, and used multivariate analysis to search for additional factors that might contribute to pain.

Result: A data set comprising 529 patients was obtained from 14 university hospitals. 66.5% of the cases were classified as IC and 33.5% as BPS. IC patients were significantly aged and female-dominant. Comorbidities such as autoimmune diseases were more prevalent in IC patients. All of the symptom severity, quality of life impairment, and bladder function were significantly worse in patients with IC. Urinary frequency and maximum voided volume on the Frequency-volume chart were 18.8 times and 15.0 times, and 160.9 and 214.1 mL, respectively. Bladder capacity under anesthesia was 293.8 and 472.6 mL, respectively. Maximum voided volume and the number of Hunner lesions were significant predictors of pain in IC patients.

Conclusion: The analysis revealed clinical manifestations of IC/BPS using the largest cohort in Japan. The results indicated higher age, higher female proportion, and higher symptomatic and functional severity in IC patients compared to BPS.

Keywords: Hunner lesion; bladder pain syndrome; interstitial cystitis; patient registry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no relevant financial interests to disclose regarding the materials discussed in the manuscript. Takahiko Mitsui, Naoya Masumori, and Haruki Kume are Editorial Board members of International Journal of Urology and co‐authors of this article. To minimize bias, they were excluded from all editorial decision‐making related to the acceptance of this article for publication.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Histogram showing the difference in age distribution between IC and bladder pain syndrome (BPS). The age distribution was unimodal, with a peak in the 70s in the interstitial cystitis (IC) group, while it lacked an evident peak and extended to younger ages in the BPS group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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