[Evaluation of accuracy comparing three types of urological manometers (author's transl)]

Manometrical examinations of the female urinary bladder are important in the field of urodynamic diagnosis. Accuracy in these measurements is a prerequisite for the reproducibility of the results. In this study, three types of urological manometers, differing in their principles of measurement, were tested for their physical and technical properties. Pressure was measured with a membrane manometer (instrument A) with Statham elements (instrument B), and with a micro-transducer (instrument C). The results using Statham elements and micro-transducers were exactly reproducible and varied only in their interference with external factors, which affect the quality of the results in clinical routine. Concerning the physical technique of measurement, instrument C with micro-transducers gives the most accurate results and is the easiest one to manage. For research and clinical routine it is superior to instrument B. It supplies reproducible data which are independent of external parameters such as the patient's position, attention and the way the instrument is set up. Our results only urodynamical measurements using micro-transducers can be taken as absolute measurements of excellent accuracy and are comparable among themselves as well as with other absolute measurements for long-term series of measurement. Using a membrane manometer (instrument A), measurements were hardly reproducible so that these results can be accepted as orienting data only.