Is the bladder "an unreliable witness" in elderly males with persistent lower urinary tract symptoms?

We sought to study the usefulness of lower urinary tract symptoms and postvoid residual urine volume in the diagnosis of voiding dysfunction in elderly men.

The symptoms and postvoid residual urine volume of 126 men aged 65 years or older referred for urodynamic studies were obtained. Their accuracy in the diagnosis of detrusor instability, bladder outlet obstruction and impaired detrusor contractility was quantified.

For the diagnosis of detrusor instability, urgency and urge incontinence with frequency and/or nocturia had a sensitivity of 73.0% and a specificity of 60.0%. For the diagnosis of bladder outlet obstruction, poor stream with frequency and/or nocturia had a sensitivity of 51.9% and a specificity of 71.6%. Using poor stream and residual urine volume of more than 50 ml occurring together, the sensitivity was 31.1% and specificity was 89.7%. For the diagnosis of impaired detrusor contractility, poor stream had a sensitivity of 44.8% and a specificity of 56.7%. With residual urine volume of more than 50 ml, a sensitivity of 96.6% and specificity of 80.4% was obtained.

Based on our findings, we conclude that the bladder does appear to be an "unreliable witness" in elderly men for the diagnosis of bladder outlet obstruction, though this is less so with impaired detrusor contractility. No conclusion can be drawn for the detrusor instability as we did not use ambulatory urodynamic studies.