BIOCHEMICAL-COMPOSITION OF COLLAGEN IN CONTINENT AND STRESS URINARY INCONTINENT WOMEN

This study was designed to assess the relationship between the amount of collagen type III in the pelvic supportive tissues and stress urina ry incontinence (SUI) with or without pelvic relaxation. Fourteen wome n agreed to participate in the study: 6 had stress urinary incontinenc e and pelvic relaxation(group 1); 4 had no pelvic relaxation and no si gn or symptoms of SUI (group 2); 4 had pelvic relaxation without SUI ( group 3). All patients underwent gynecologic surgical procedures for b enign pathology and at that time biopsies were taken from perineal ski n, uterosacral ligaments and round ligaments of the uterus. Collagen t ype III content was measured in the specimens and compared between the groups. Each subject preoperatively underwent complete urodynamic wor kup. A t test was used for the statistical analysis. Collagen type III content was significantly reduced (p < 0.05) in the specimens from pa tients with SUI (group 1) as compared independently with each of the o ther two groups (groups 2 and 3). Tissues from women without SUI (grou ps 2 and 3) had a similar content of collagen type III. These findings suggest that women with SUI show an altered collagen profile in the s kin, the uterosacral, and the round ligaments. This seems unrelated to secondary damage of the supportive tissues and degree of pelvic relax ation.