Accuracy of Portable Ultrasound Measurement of the Bladder Volume Using the Manual Fanning Scan and Traditional...

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Medical Imaging
• Diagnostic Technology

Background:

• Accurate bladder volume (BV) measurement is crucial for diagnosing and managing lower urinary tract symptoms.
• Portable ultrasound bladder scanners (PUBS) are increasingly used for non-invasive BV assessment.
• Comparing different PUBS methodologies can optimize clinical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate and compare the accuracy of two portable ultrasound bladder scanner (PUBS) methods for measuring bladder volume (BV).
• Specifically, to compare the manual fanning scan (MFS) method against the traditional motorized scan (TMS) method.

Main Methods:

• Prospective enrollment of patients with lower urinary tract symptoms undergoing urodynamic studies.
• Bladder volume was measured using both TMS-type (TMS-BV) and MFS-type (MFS-BV) PUBS before uroflowmetry.
• True bladder volume (T-BV) was determined by summing voided and post-void residual volumes via catheterization.

Main Results:

• Analysis of 39 patients revealed no significant difference between TMS-BV, MFS-BV, and T-BV (P>0.05).
• Percentage differences in volume measurements between TMS-BV and MFS-BV showed no significant variation across different bladder volume ranges.
• While TMS-BV demonstrated a stronger correlation with T-BV (R²=0.90) compared to MFS-BV (R²=0.81), overall measurement accuracy was similar.

Conclusions:

• Both manual fanning scan (MFS) and traditional motorized scan (TMS) portable ultrasound bladder scanner (PUBS) methods provide comparable accuracy for bladder volume (BV) measurement.
• The traditional motorized scan (TMS) method showed a slightly stronger correlation with true bladder volume (T-BV).
• Clinical decisions regarding bladder volume assessment can be made using either PUBS method with similar reliability.