Validation of timed micturition--a comparison of flow rates measured at home manually and electronically.
OBJECTIVE
To compare and evaluate manually performed timed micturition in a domestic setting with registrations made using a home flowmeter.


METHODS
Forty-six randomly selected men without voiding symptoms performed timed micturition at home both by hand and with a Da Capo home flowmeter. Statistical comparison using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and regression analysis of the differences was performed to evaluate whether the two methods were comparable.


RESULTS
In two cases, there was a large discrepancy between the two methods. For the remaining 44 men, there were no statistically significant differences between the two methods. The median (range) timed micturition was 7 s (3-35 s) for manual measurements and 6.5 s (3.5-28 s) for electronic measurements. For each individual, the difference between the manually and electronically obtained medians was calculated. The average individual difference was 0.06 s (SD 1.6 s).


CONCLUSIONS
Approximately 95% of men are able to measure timed micturition at home manually without statistically or clinically significant differences from electronically obtained measurements. One has to be aware that in a small proportion of cases timed micturition measured at home may be falsely long.
Folkestad
Bengt
B
Department of Urology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. bengt.folkestad@lio.se
Spångberg
Anders
A
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004581:Electronics; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012212:Rheology / Q000379:methods*; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014554:Urination / Q000502:physiology*; D014563:Urodynamics; D014572:Urology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*