Correlation Between Urodynamic and Clinical Diagnoses in Classifying the Type of Urinary Incontinence in Women

Abstract

Urodynamic tests are considered the gold standard for investigating and managing patients with urinary incontinence symptoms. The objective of this review is to determine the correlation between urodynamic and clinical diagnoses in identifying the type of urinary incontinence in pre and postmenopausal women. This is a retrospective review of 116 women with urinary incontinence symptoms that were evaluated clinically initially and then investigated further with urodynamic tests. The results of the urodynamic studies were compared with the diagnosis assigned based on the clinical evaluation. For 69 women, the clinical diagnosis was not confirmed by urodynamic tests. In addition to this, the clinical diagnosis was confirmed by urodynamic investigations in only 38% of the patients. This is in accordance with current literature, which is suggestive that the agreement between urodynamic studies and clinical evaluation in identifying the type of urinary incontinence is poor. Larger definite trials are needed to provide further evidence of the diagnostic value of urodynamic tests in the management of patients with urinary incontinence symptoms.