IC Garners Even More Attention and Debate

Orlando, FL (May 21, 2008) --- Interstitial cystitis received continued in-depth coverage yesterday at the American Urological Association’s Annual Meeting.

IC again was a top priority:

IC and Physical Therapy Study Distributed in AUA Annual Meeting Materials
Every healthcare professional at this annual meeting woke up to front page news about the value of physical therapy for IC symptoms. The AUA’s daily newspaper distributed at the event to the registrants in all of the conference hotels and to attendees in the convention center itself had a page-one story about Dr. Kenneth Peters’ presentation of the Urological Pelvic Pain Collaborative Research Network’s study showing the promise of myofascial physical therapy in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain. That was unimaginable just a few years ago when most leaders of meeting sessions questioned whether the positive effects might just come from the personal attention physical therapists give their patients and doubting whether a controlled trial of physical therapy could ever be designed.

Just as Dr. Peters told his colleagues here, IC patients, too, should be sure that the physical therapists they go to for treatment of their pelvic pain are knowledgeable about pelvic floor trigger points and high-tone muscle dysfunction. Scientific research like this should not only make this therapy more acceptable and easier for you to obtain but also should prompt insurance companies to cover this kind of therapy.

IC Training Courses by Experts Offered
John Forrest, MD and Saundra Seidel, RN
More evidence that the urology community is taking IC seriously and trying harder than ever to offer better treatments was the attendance at an IC course that started at a 6 am on Tuesday. The crowd of some 220 health professionals strained the room’s capacity, and it was standing-room-only by the time John Forrest, MD, and Saundra Seidel, RN, of Urologic Specialists of Oklahoma in Tulsa, got started.

They took their colleagues through the latest information on how prevalent IC is, which will change soon because of the NIDDK-sponsored Boston Area Community Health (BACH) studies (which had some data presented here today), the latest information about diagnosis and treatment, and ways to make support and treatment available to patients when they need it, even on a walk-in basis.

Philip Hanno, MD and David Burks, MD
Philip Hanno, MD, from the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia and David Burks, MD, from the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, also gave a comprehensive primer and updated course on IC to their colleagues, outlining the current thinking and addressing the debates on what IC is and how best to diagnose it, their own steps in treatment and management, and what future interdisciplinary research may bring in understanding and therapy.

RAND Interstitial Cystitis Epidemiology Study (RICE) Preliminary Results Reported
Some preliminary results of the RAND Interstitial Cystitis Epidemiology (RICE) study were presented yesterday that may play an important role in defining IC/painful bladder syndrome (PBS). Quentin Clemens, MD, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, analyzed patients’ questionnaire answers about urinary urgency to see whether that differed from urgency experienced in overactive bladder (OAB). The women with IC and the women with OAB said they experienced urgency, and often, but not always, described urgency differently. Women with IC usually said that their urgency was because of pain, pressure, or discomfort, and women with OAB more commonly said theirs was because they had urine leakage concerns. But about half of the women with OAB said that they had urgency because of pain, pressure, or discomfort.

Prevalence of Abuse in IC Debated
Researchers working with Kristene Whitmore, MD, from the Pelvic and Sexual Health Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, found that the rates of childhood, physical, and emotional abuse in IC patients was no higher than the national average. The rate of sexual abuse was statistically higher, but not by much. She emphasized that doctors should refer women who have been abused for counseling if they need it, but that it doesn’t mean IC has a psychological cause and doesn’t mean that their pain shouldn’t be well controlled with medication.

Researchers at a Veterans’ Affairs (VA) hospital found that 50 percent of women referred for lower urinary tract symptoms (such as OAB, IC, and incontinence) had suffered sexual trauma. It is now VA policy to ask women patients whether they have suffered sexual trauma. Session chairman Raymond Rackley, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic and Robert Evans, MD, from Alliance Urology Specialists in Greensboro, North Carolina, were concerned about jumping to the conclusion that sexual trauma causes urinary tract problems, worrying that it might divert physicians from effective management. Dr. Rackley also expressed concerns that patients might not respond accurately to the question because it is being asked so often.

Symptoms have an Impact on Women’s Sexual Health
Today brought more news of the impact of lower urinary tract symptoms on women’s sexual health. A very large study of some 8,000 women in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden showed that, among sexually active women, a substantial portion—11 percent—had decreased or stopped having sex because of their urinary symptoms and that 14 percent said that their urinary symptoms decreased their enjoyment of sex. The most common reasons for decreasing sexual activity were low desire, bladder pain during intercourse, and urinary tract symptoms including common IC symptoms such as painful urination, bladder pain, urgency, and frequency.

Also, look forward to more of IC's extensive coverage at this year's AUA Annual Meeting in Café ICA, the ICA Update, and in the Press Release and AUA sections of the ICA's website!