Construction of the flow rate nomogram using polynomial regression.

The urinary flow rates of normal individuals depend on the initial bladder volume in a non-linear fashion (J. Urol. 109 (1973) 874). A flow rate nomogram was developed by Siroky, Olsson and Krane, (J. Vol. 122 (1979) 665), taking the non-linear relationship into account, as an aid in the interpretation of urinary flow rate data. The use of a flow rate nomogram is to differentiate normal from obstructed individuals and is useful in the post operative follow-up of urinary outflow obstruction. It has been shown (J. Urol. 123 (1980) 123) that the flow rate nomogram is an objective measure of the efficacy of medical or surgical therapy. Instead of manually reading nomogram values from the flow rate nomogram, an algorithm is developed using polynomial regression to fit the flow rate nomograms and hence compute nomogram values directly from the fitted nomogram equations.