Colour Doppler ultrasonography of female urethral vascularization in normal young volunteers: a preliminary report

Objective To assess urethral vascularization in healthy young women, using colour Doppler ultrasonography. Subjects and methods Eleven healthy young women volunteers (mean age 33.6 y ears, range 24-46) with no pelvic floor disorders and no history of inconti nence were assessed. The subjects underwent colour Doppler ultrasonography using a 4-7 MHz convex broadband transducer. Translabial sagittal scans of the urethra were taken when the subjects had a full bladder, both during th e oestrogenic and progestogenic phases. The colour Doppler ultrasonography parameters were optimized to detect slow flows in the anterior and posterio r distal, middle and proximal urethra. A rank-sum nonparametric test was us ed to assess differences between the resistive indices. Results The statistical evaluation showed a significant difference in the r esistive index only in the anterior urethra. between the distal and middle plus proximal urethra, in both the progestogenic (P = 0.002) and oestrogeni c (P = 0.0127) phases. Conclusions This study confirmed that the vascularization of the urethra pl ays an important role in the 'seal' effect, which is considered one of the most important factors in urethral closure. There was a significantly great er resistive index in the interior proximal urethra than ill the middle and distal urethra. These findings suggest that the seal effect is related to the existence of it rich venous urethral vascularization, involved in the m echanism of urethral closure. Colour Doppler ultrasonography or the urethra seems to be feasible and useful for understanding the mechanism of the vas cular component in female continence.