Unrecognized Voiding Difficulty in Female Type 2 Diabetic Patients in the Diabetes Clinic
A prospective case-control study
- Hong-Jeng Yu, MD1,
- Wei-Chia Lee, MD1,
- Shih-Ping Liu, MD1,
- Tong-Yuag Tai, MD2,
- Huey-Peir Wu, MD2 and
- Jun Chen, MD1
- 1Department of Urology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- 2Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Hong-Jeng Yu, MD, Department of Urology, National Taiwan University Hospital, 7 Chungshan South Rd., Taipei, Taiwan, 100. E-mail: yhj5251{at}ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw
Patients with diabetes may develop diabetic cystopathy, which is characterized mainly by impaired detrusor sensation and contractility (1,2). Impaired detrusor contractility may lead to incomplete bladder emptying and subsequently result in voiding difficulty, urinary retention, chronic urinary tract infection (UTI), and upper urinary tract damage (1,3,4). Although diabetic cystopathy is common, with a reported prevalence ranging from 25 to 87% (1), it is frequently not recognized by patients and physicians due to its insidious development and inconspicuous symptoms. Usually, genitourinary dysfunction in diabetic patients has reached an advanced stage by the time urologists are consulted. The present study was designed to investigate the prevalence of voiding difficulty in female patients regularly treated in the diabetes outpatient clinic.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
From July 2001 to June 2003, we conducted a prospective study to compare voiding function between 176 female type 2 diabetic patients and 162 age-matched nondiabetic women. Diabetic patients were regularly treated in the diabetes outpatient clinic for >1 year, and nondiabetic women were mostly hospital employees or family members of admitted patients in the urological ward, none of whom had ever sought treatment for voiding dysfunction. Those with coexisting medical factors that could affect voiding function were excluded. …
