Moderated Poster
Presentation Authors: Dhruv Sethi*, Blessan Sebastian, Devina Thapa, Naomi Vinod, Zachary Cullingsworth, Andrea Balthazar, Anna Nagle, Laura Carucci, John Speich, Adam Klausner, Richmond, VA
Introduction: An ultrasound-urodynamics study recently identified abnormal bladder shapes in some individuals with overactive bladder compared to healthy volunteers. The objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis that 3D abdominal ultrasound can identify differences in bladder shape parameters between individuals with OAB and healthy individuals during non-invasive accelerated oral hydration.
Methods: Participants completed an IRB-approved oral hydration protocol and were grouped as no urgency or high urgency based on ICIq-OAB surveys (question 5a =0 or ≥3). Participants voided, drank 2L of Gatorade G2, and completed two fill-void cycles while ultrasound images were recorded every 5 minutes. Participants reported their bladder sensation on a 0-100% scale using a tablet-based sensation meter, and voided when they reached 100%. Bladder wall perimeters were quantified at the midline in the sagittal and transverse planes using GE 4DView software (Fig 1). Transverse to sagittal perimeter ratios were calculated and compared for the two groups.
Results: The OAB group included 7 women and 1 man and the healthy group included 6 women and 3 men. The average transverse perimeter to sagittal perimeter ratio for the OAB group was 1.21±0.07 and was significantly greater than for the normal group (1.018±0.056, p=0.043). The transverse to sagittal perimeter ratios for three of the women with OAB were more than 2 standard deviations above the mean of the healthy group.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that quantifying bladder shape parameters during non-invasive hydration studies with abdominal ultrasound is feasible. The women with OAB that were identified with outlying geometric parameters may represent a subgroup with bladder shape-associated OAB that could be non-invasively identified.
Source of Funding: This study was supported by NIH award R01DK101719 and the VCU School of Medicine Dean&[prime]s Research Fellowship.
