title: Urethral pressure response patterns induced by squeeze in continent and incontinent women.
abstract: Our aim was to compare the urethral pressure response pattern to pelvic floor muscle contractions in 20-27 years old, nulliparous continent women (n = 31) to that of continent (n = 28) and formerly untreated incontinent (n = 59) (53-63 years old) women. These women underwent urethral pressure measurements during rest and repeated pelvic muscle contractions. The response to the contractions was graded 0-4. The young continent women showed a mean urethral pressure response of 2.8, the middle-aged continent women 2.2 (NS vs young continent), and the incontinent women 1.5 (p < 0.05 vs middle-aged continent, p < 0.001 vs young continent). Urethral pressures during rest were significantly higher in the younger women than in both groups of middle-aged women. The decreased ability to increase urethral pressure on demand seen in middle-aged incontinent women compared to continent women of the same age as well as young women seems to be a consequence of a neuromuscular disorder rather than of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Clinical Sciences, University Hospital, 221 85 Lund, Sweden. pia.teleman@med.lu.se
authors.forename: Pia M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Teleman
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mattiasson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D017773:Pelvic Floor / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D014521:Urethra / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000503:physiopathology*