Relationship among vaginal palpation, vaginal squeeze pressure, electromyographic and ultrasonographic variables of female pelvic floor muscles.
BACKGROUND
The proper evaluation of the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) is essential for choosing the correct treatment. Currently, there is no gold standard for the assessment of female PFM function.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the correlation between vaginal palpation, vaginal squeeze pressure, and electromyographic and ultrasonographic variables of the female PFM.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study evaluated 80 women between 18 and 35 years of age who were nulliparous and had no pelvic floor dysfunction. PFM function was assessed based on digital palpation, vaginal squeeze pressure, electromyographic activity, bilateral diameter of the bulbocavernosus muscles and the amount of bladder neck movement during voluntary PFM contraction using transperineal bi-dimensional ultrasound. The Pearson correlation was used for statistical analysis (p<0.05).


RESULTS
There was a strong positive correlation between PFM function and PFM contraction pressure (0.90). In addition, there was a moderate positive correlation between these two variables and PFM electromyographic activity (0.59 and 0.63, respectively) and movement of the bladder neck in relation to the pubic symphysis (0.51 and 0.60, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that there was a correlation between vaginal palpation, vaginal squeeze pressure, and electromyographic and ultrasonographic variables of the PFM in nulliparous women. The strong correlation between digital palpation and PFM contraction pressure indicated that perineometry could easily be replaced by PFM digital palpation in the absence of equipment.
Departamento de Fisioterapia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brasil.
Vanessa S
VS
Pereira
Departamento de Medicina, UFSCar, São Carlos, SP, Brasil.
Humberto S
HS
Hirakawa
Departamento de Fisioterapia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brasil.
Ana B
AB
Oliveira
Departamento de Fisioterapia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brasil.
Patricia
P
Driusso
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010173:Palpation; D017773:Pelvic Floor / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014621:Vagina; D055815:Young Adult