Overactive bladder (OAB) prevalence is a quite high and is 16-22% among adults. In addition, significance of OAB is explained not only by high prevalence but also substantial quality of life decrease in these patients. Recently a lot of attention is paid to ischemia and related microcirculation disorder in bladder wall.

A study for capability of high-frequency Doppler ultrasound examination to assess bladder wall microcirculation and bladder blood flow (BBF) in OAB patients and correlation of the data obtained and disease symptom intensity was performed. 48 women aged 24–78 with OAB symptoms were studied. To assess the bladder wall microcirculation and its association with clinical symptoms an original method of intravesical high-frequency Doppler ultrasound examination has been developed. 48 women with OAB and 32 healthy women as a control were examined using this method to investigate BBF. OAB symptom intensity was assessed according to the data from patient’s 3-day urinary diaries. The study results revealed that OAB women in comparison with control group patients have microcirculation BBF decline involving its arterial, venous and capillary portions. Extent of microcirculation disorder in bladder wall depended on pelvic prolapse intensity, arterial hypertension, coronary artery disease and chronic constipation occurrence and was associated with severity of OAB symptoms. Furthermore, frequency of urinary urgency correlated with arterial BBF values while increase of urinary frequency correlated with venous and capillary BBF values.