Comparison of bladder blood flow in patients with and without interstitialcystitis

Purpose: We compared bladder blood flow during filling and emptying in pati ents with and without interstitial cystitis, and correlated blood flow with symptoms in those with interstitial. cystitis. Materials and Methods: Bladder perfusion was measured using a dual channel endoscopic laser Doppler flow probe, Measurements were obtained in superfic ial and deeper vascular beds from the bladder mucosa at the trigone and bac k wall at baseline, at the volume of awake capacity, during 80 cm. water hy drodistention and after bladder drainage. American Urological Association s ymptom score was obtained preoperatively in interstitial. cystitis patients . Results: In all areas bladder perfusion decreased with filling in interstit ial cystitis patients and increased in those without interstitial cystitis. There were no significant differences in response to emptying the bladder, as perfusion tended to increase in both groups. There was no correlation b etween bladder perfusion at baseline, or in response to filling or emptying with overall symptom score. Conclusions: Bladder perfusion decreases with bladder filling in patients w ith but increases in those without interstitial cystitis. The inability of the interstitial cystitis bladder to increase bladder blood flow with filli ng may be a reflection of other pathological processes in the bladder mucos a. The lack of correlation between blood flow and symptoms suggests that bl adder ischemia alone cannot account for the symptoms in interstitial cystit is.