Correlation of Detrusor Wall Thickness with International Prostate Symptom Score in Men with Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

Abstract

Background: Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are major causes of morbidity in men aged 50 years and above. The LUTS causes reduced quality of life with attendant loss of economic activities. Bladder outlet obstruction is an important cause of LUTS. Urodynamic studies is the gold standard for the investigation of men with LUTS, but this is invasive, costly, time consuming and needs expertise to carry out. One of the remodelling that the bladder undergoes in LUTS is change in detrusor muscle / wall thickness (DWT), which can be investigated by ultrasound. LUTS are assessed using International Prostate System Score (IPSS), and the value obtained can be correlated with DWT. This is a sensitive tool in the assessment of men with LUTS. Studies involving correlation of DWT with IPSS are few in the literature and rare in our environment. The aim of this study is to measure DWT among men with LUTS and correlate the results with their IPSS. Subjects and Methods: This study was carried out in Radiology Department of our hospital from December, 2023 to June 2024. Data obtained from the study was entered and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 20.0. Sociodemographic characteristics, measures of central tendencies and dispersion for continuous numerical variables, paired sample t-test, as well as Pearson correlation tests were used in the analysis. P-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The large numbers of participants in the study were between 56 - 65 years (38.1%) with a mean age of 67.2 years. Most of the subject’s have moderate LUTS. There is a positive linear correlation between the Pre-void DWT and IPSS (p-value = 0.035), but not with post-void DWT (p-value = 0.619). Conclusion: There is an increase in pre-void DWT with increase in severity of LUTS.This is a key indicator of severity in patients with LUTS.