Urethral Closure Pressure at Stress: A Predictive Measure for the Diagnosis and Severity of Urinary Incontinence in Women

PURPOSE: Maintaining urinary continence at stress requires a competent urethral sphincter and good suburethral support. Sphincter competence is estimated by measuring the maximal urethral closure pressure at rest. We aimed to study the value of a new urodynamic measure, the urethral closure pressure at stress (s-UCP), in the diagnosis and severity of female stress urinary incontinence (SUI). METHODS: O), and pressure transmission ratio (%). RESULTS: O had a sensitivity of 73.1% and a specificity of 93.0% for predicting SUI. The association between s-UCP and SUI severity was also significant. CONCLUSIONS: s-UCP is the most discriminative measure that has been identified for the diagnosis of SUI. It is strongly inversely correlated with the severity of SUI. It appears to be a specific SUI biomarker reflecting both urethral sphincter competence and urethral support.