THE UTILITY OF ELASTOSONOGRAPHY FOR ASSESSING SUBURETHRAL TISSUE ELASTICITY IN WOMEN WITH STRESS URINARY INCONTINENCE

SUMMARY Objective: To determine clinical and diagnostic value of elastosonography (ES) in women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Material and methods: Thirty subjects with SUI and 30 subjects without SUI were compared in terms of elastosonographic suburethral tissue elasticity. SUI and bladder neck hypermobility was determined by pad test, Q-tip and stress tests. Measurements points included under bladder (UB), subcutaneous fatty tissue (SC), and the urethra (U) points. Three indices were calculated using these measurements (UB/SC, U/SC and UB/U). The diagnostic value of ES indices were investigated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. Results: ES UB/SC (AUC=0.962, P=0.001) and U/SC (AUC=0.953, P=0.001) were significant predictors for stress test positivity. ES UB/SC (AUC=0.883, P=0.001) and U/SC (AUC=0.885, P=0.001) were significant predictors for pad test positivity. ES UB/SC (AUC=0.877, P=0.001) and U/SC (AUC=0.857, P=0.001) were significant predictors for Q tip test positivity. In linear regression analysis, stress test positivity was significantly associated with the ES UB/SC (R2=0.84, beta=0.369, P=0.026) and ES U/SC (R2=0.84, beta=0.496, P=0.003). Conclusion: Elastosonographic tissue elasticity determination is a promising tool in bladder neck hypermobility and SUI diagnosis, and may be used as an adjunctive method in selecting patients appropriate for stress urinary incontinence surgery.