Comparison of Bladder Blood Flow in Patients With and Without Interstitial Cystitis

Bladder perfusion decreases with bladder filling in patients with but increases in those without interstitial cystitis. The inability of the interstitial cystitis bladder to increase bladder blood flow with filling may be a reflection of other pathological processes in the bladder mucosa. The lack of correlation between blood flow and symptoms suggests that bladder ischemia alone cannot account for the symptoms in interstitial cystitis.