Post mictional urinary residue in men

an ultrasound analysis

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Prostate ultrasound is commonly requested by doctors for male patients over 40 years old, both for diagnostic and screening purposes. An enlarged prostate can result in voiding dysfunction due to static (mechanical) or dynamic (smooth muscles of the bladder neck and prostatic urethra) obstruction. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate if there is a correlation between prostate volume and post-void residual (PVR) urine. METHODS: This is a retrospective cross-sectional observational study. The study was conducted with male patients using data from January to July 2023. RESULTS: A total of 500 male patients with an average age of 62 years, ranging from 40 to 83 years, were analyzed. Measuring post-void residual (PVR) urine is crucial for assessing potential prostate-related issues. In this study, a PVR of 0 to 40 ml was considered normal, and anything above 40 ml was considered abnormal. The highest PVR recorded was 287 ml, and the heaviest prostate weighed 79.64 g, while the normal weight of a healthy adult prostate ranges between 20-30 grams, or 20-25 cm³. Out of the 500 patients, 216 were found to have abnormalities: 145 had an increased prostate weight but normal PVR, 71 had both increased prostate weight and PVR, 50 had increased PVR but normal prostate weight, and 234 were normal. According to the Pearson index, the correlation was considered weak. The data distribution was tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, which showed that these variables did not follow a parametric distribution. Therefore, the Spearman correlation technique was adopted. CONCLUSION: The retrospective cross-sectional observational study showed that abdominal ultrasound was able to identify changes in prostate size and post-void residual (PVR) urine, providing information for the evaluation and monitoring of these patients. However, there are weak correlations between prostate ultrasound (volume) and post-void residual urine.