Luts-V: A new simplified score for assessing lower urinary tract symptoms in men

Develop and validate a new and simplified score for evaluating the lower urinary tract symptoms in men.

We modified the existing visual prostate symptom score, including changes in the images, sequence, and new alternatives, resulting in a new visual score (LUTS visual score-LUTS-V). For the validation of the new tool, we used the International Prostatic Symptom Score as the gold-standard and the new LUTS-V to 306 men. The total IPSS score and the total LUTS-V score of each subject were evaluated to determine the agreement between the two instruments. ROC curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and best cut-off of LUTS-V. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratios were used to describe the diagnostic properties.

The mean age of the participants was 59 [52-87] years. There was a significant correlation between LUTS-V and IPSS. (r=0.72 (p<0.0001). The Bland-Altman analyzes demonstrate good agreement between the two questionnaires (bias=5.6%). LUTS-V demonstrated excellent diagnostic accuracy in detecting the most serious cases with an area under the ROC curve of 83% [78-87%] 95% CI. p <0.001). LUTS-V >4 was the best threshold, with a sensitivity of 74% and specificity of 78%.

LUTS-V is a simple, self-administered tool with a significant discriminatory power to identify subjects with moderate to severe LUTS and may represent a useful instrument for the diagnosis and follow-up of men with urinary symptoms.