[Utility of transperineal ultrasound in stress urinary incontinence diagnosis]

Urinary incontinence is a common women's illness which causes a significant negative impact in their lives' quality. Stress urinary incontinence and mixed one are the most usual types in postmenopausal women. It is considered that transperineal ultrasound imaging could be as efficient for stress urinary incontinence diagnostic purposes, as the urodynamic testing.

To determine the utility of transperineal ultrasound in the diagnosis of stress urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women.

A diagnostic test was applied based on employment of transperineal ultrasound, in postmenopausal women with clinical SUI from January 2001 to October 2008 in the Hospital Español de México. The procedure involved two phases: in the first phase, anatomical measurements were determined using transperineal ultrasound, in order to establish the normalcy in women not suffering stress urinary incontinence, and from them it began the second phase to study the utility of transperineal ultrasound in stress urinary incontinence.

The group analyzed involved 80 patients with stress urinary incontinence clinical diagnosis; 15 (19%) patients were excluded. We obtained the following results: sensitivity: 94% (IC 95% 88-100%), specificity 73% (IC 95% 46-99%), positive predictive value: 94% (IC 95% 88-100%), negative predictive value: 73% (IC 95% 46-99%) and positive likelihood ratio 3.46, and negative likelihood ratio 0.08.

Our data suggest that transperineal ultrasound can be use as a screening tool for stress urinary incontinence diagnosis in postmenopausal patients, based on measurements perfoming simple. It is important more studies with bigger sample size to establish the diagnostic utility.