title: Traces: making sense of urodynamics testing--Part 5: evaluation of bladder filling/storage functions.
abstract: Lower urinary tract function is characterized by two stages: bladder filling/ storage and micturition. Natural bladder filling tends to be slow, intermittent, and variable, while urodynamics testing employs a continuous, supraphysiologic fill rate. A clear understanding of the typical proportion between bladder storage and micturition is essential when urodynamics findings are interpreted within a clinical setting. When completing a filling cystometrogram, the urodynamics clinician must answer five essential questions to generate clinical meaningful results: bladder capacity, bladder wall compliance, competence of the urethral sphincter mechanism, sensations of bladder filling, and detrusor response to bladder filling/storage. While the emphasis of each question differs depending on the patient's lower urinary tract symptoms and specific questions posed by the referring physician, the combined answers to these questions form a comprehensive evaluation of lower urinary tract filling and storage functions. This article will address how the urodynamic clinician answers the first question, "What is the capacity of this bladder?"
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Mikel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gray
mesh_terms: D003950:Diagnostic Techniques, Urological / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D001743:Urinary Bladder; D014546:Urinary Catheterization; D014554:Urination; D014563:Urodynamics