Wearable Personal Uroflowmeter for Measuring Urine Leakage in Women with Incontinence: Feasibility Study

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Urology
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Urinary leakage in women is a common issue often managed with subjective patient diaries or limited office-based tests.
• Existing methods for assessing urine flow and leakage suffer from recall bias and lack real-world activity correlation.
• Accurate, continuous monitoring of micturition and leakage during daily life is needed for effective diagnosis and management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a novel wearable personal uroflowmeter designed for logging urine leakage episodes in women.
• To evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of this device in a clinical setting.
• To assess the system's ability to correlate physical activities and posture changes with urine leakage events.

Main Methods:

• Development of a wearable system featuring a miniature flow rate sensor placed under the urethral meatus.
• Integration of a microcontroller and inertial measurement unit (IMU) worn at the waist for data processing.
• Feasibility study involving six women recording urine flow rate, volume, and activity-related leakage during daily living.

Main Results:

• The wearable uroflowmeter demonstrated 97.5% accuracy in assessing micturition flow compared to gold standard uroflowmetry.
• The system successfully recorded urine flow and volume during activities of daily living.
• Post-hoc analysis identified specific activities and pose changes that triggered urine leakage.

Conclusions:

• The novel wearable personal uroflowmeter is a feasible and accurate tool for monitoring urine leakage in women.
• The system provides objective, subject-specific data linking physical activity to leakage, overcoming limitations of diaries and office-based tests.
• This technology offers a significant advancement in understanding and managing female urinary incontinence.