Prevalence and clinical characteristics of overactive bladder in systemic sclerosis

Objectives: Overactive bladder (OAB) is a clinical diagnosis defined with the presence of urinary urgency, usually accompanied by frequency and nocturia, with or without urgency urinary incontinence. Objective was to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of Japanese systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients with OAB.Methods: OAB was diagnosed by OAB symptom score (OABSS) in 104 Japanese SSc patients (93 women and 11 men). Differential diseases of OAB were conducted by urologists.Results: The prevalence of OAB in SSc patients was 27.9% (29/104). SSc patients with OAB were characterized by old age, a long history of morbidity (15.4 vs. 11.2 years, p < .01), high anti-centromere antibody positive rate (75.9 vs. 44%, p < .05), high incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (93.1 vs. 73.3%, p < .05), low anti-SS-A antibody positive rate (6.9 vs. 26.8%, p < .05), and low incidence of internal lung disease (17.9 vs. 45.7%, p < .05) compared to SSc patients without OAB.Conclusion: This is the first study that evaluated the prevalence and clinical features of OAB in Japanese SSc patients. Since SSc patients might be prone to develop OAB, it was thought that OAB should be noted as one of the complications of SSc patients.