Clinical evaluation of the Q-tip test in normal pregnant women

The crisis frequency of stress incontinence (SI) is known to be high among pregnant women. This preliminary study was performed to determine whether t he diagnostic standard of the Q-tip test used in the diagnosis of SI in non pregnant women is applicable to pregnant women. The Q-tip tests were perfor med regularly during pregnancy and after parturition on primipara (n = 71) and multipara (n = 55) who were not in SI crisis at any time during the pre gnancy. The values measured in multipara were significantly higher than in primipara (p = 0.0001), and the tendency to be higher was more prominent at 2-5 months and 10 months of pregnancy. These findings show that different normal values of the Q-tip test are necessary for primipara and multipara. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG. Basel.