title: Ultrasound bladder wall thickness measurement in diagnosis of recurrent urinary tract infections and cystitis cystica in prepubertal girls.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate urinary bladder wall thickness (BWT) assessed by ultrasound as a diagnostic tool for cystitis cystica.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a 9-year prospective study comprising 120 prepubertal girls. Sixty subjects of whom half underwent cystoscopy represented cases while the other 60 (those with a single urinary tract infection and healthy subjects) represented controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis, BWT discriminated very well between cases and controls with area under the ROC curve close to 1.0. At the optimum cut-off defined at 3.9 mm, negative predictive value (NPV) was 100% leaving no probability of cystic cystitis with BWT <3.9 mm. Positive predictive value (PPV) was also very high (95.2%), indicating only around 4.82% probability of no cystic cystitis in patients with BWT values ≥3.9 mm. BWT could also distinguish between healthy subjects and those with a cured single urinary tract infection, although discriminatory properties were moderate (area under ROC 86.7%, PPV 78.8%, NPV 85.2%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ultrasound mucosal bladder wall measurement is a non-invasive, simple and quite reliable method in diagnosis of cystitis cystica in prepubertal girls with recurrent urinary tract infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Zagreb University Hospital Centre, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Kišpatićeva 12, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia. Electronic address: danko.milosevic@zg.t-com.hr.
authors.forename: Danko
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Milošević
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Trkulja
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Turudić
authors.forename: Danica
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Batinić
authors.forename: Borislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Spajić
authors.forename: Goran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tešović
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003556:Cystitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D012008:Recurrence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D001743:Urinary Bladder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
keywords: Bladder ultrasonography; Cystitis cystica; Urinary tract infections