[An urethromanometric study using micro-pressures gauges for female urinary incontinence. A definition of the index of continence. Applications (author's transl)]

Abstract

The study has resulted from comparing urethral pressure curves measured with the use of a catheter with two micropressure gauges in 34 continent and 100 incontinent women. Two types of tracing were obtained: first of all at rest and then with the woman coughing repeatedly. Of the different parameters that were measured at rest only one seems to be advantageous over the others. That is the pressure at the maximum closure which becomes less with incontinence and with ageing. The curves that have been produced with effort make it possible to analyse what happens to this pressure when maximum closure is effected. This always rises in patients who are continent and always lessens in patients who are incontinent. The ratio of these two values, Pc with maximum effort over Pc at maximum rest, allows an index of continence (IC) to be drawn; and which conveys the ability of the sphincter apparatus to adapt itself, and which gives a quantitative value to female continence. Its practical application makes if possible to confirm the diagnosis and adapt the therapy to be used in many incontinent patients in whom other tests have been unrevealing, and to unmask incontinences that have been masked by prolapse and to identify possible future incontinent patients.