title: Pad weighing tests: the best way to quantify urine loss in patients with incontinence.
abstract: This article reviews the literature on pad weighing tests composed to measure urinary incontinence. The tests can be divided into short-term tests (one to two hours) performed in a clinic or laboratory, or long-term tests (12 to 48 hours) performed by the patient at home. The short-term tests, apart from practical disadvantages, have low negative predictive value and require retrograde filling of the bladder to reach acceptable reproducibility. The long-term tests have practical advantages, better sensitivity and acceptable reproducibility. Pad weighing tests have no value for the purpose of differential diagnosis. The validity of the long-term test as a measure of the symptom of urinary incontinence is obvious whereas it is unclear what the short-term test measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Academic Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Siltberg
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Victor
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Larsson
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014550:Urinary Incontinence, Stress / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014556:Urine / Q000502:physiology; D014563:Urodynamics