Cystometrical sensory data from a normal population: comparison of two groups of young healthy volunteers examined with 5 years interval.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the pattern of sensations reported during standardized cystometry in a group of healthy young volunteers and compare them with a group examined 5 years before.
METHODS: A group of 50 young healthy volunteers without any symptoms or history reported the sensations they felt during cystometry. These results were compared with those of another group of 38 young healthy volunteers examined in the same lab in 1995 by another investigator.
RESULTS: All participants perceived a first sensation of bladder filling, first desire to void and strong desire to void. Each sensation was easily distinguishable from the others. The volumes at which these sensations came up varied widely. The ratio between volumes at consecutive sensations and at full bladder was fairly constant. All but two parameters were not significantly different from those found in 1995.
CONCLUSIONS: Our data give additional weight to previous findings that there exists a normal pattern of sensations reported during cystometric bladder filling. This sensory pattern probably corresponds with specific physiological mechanisms as suggested before. Deviations from this pattern indicate or illustrate pathology.