Elsevier

Urology

Volume 69, Issue 4, April 2007, Pages 763-766
Urology

Pediatric urology
Bladder Wall Thickness in Healthy School-Aged Children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2006.03.086Get rights and content

Objectives

To evaluate the effectiveness of transabdominal ultrasonography for bladder volume and detrusor muscle thickness and to research the relationship of these measurements with age, height, and body mass index.

Methods

We reviewed the records of 244 healthy, school-aged children from February to May 2003. After a complete urologic examination, the weight and height of all children were measured, and their body mass index was determined. Transabdominal ultrasonography with a high-frequency probe was performed to obtain the anterior, posterior, and lateral bladder wall thicknesses.

Results

The mean age of the children was 10.7 ± 3.6 years (range 7 to 15), and the mean bladder volume was 256 cm3 (range 78 to 790). The relationship between bladder volume and age was significant (P = 0.0001, r = 0.568). The mean anterior, posterior, and lateral detrusor thickness was 1.42 mm (range 0.8 to 2.8), 1.57 mm (range 0.7 to 3.1), and 1.49 mm (range 0.6 to 2.6), respectively. The relationships between increasing age and the anterior and posterior wall thicknesses were significant (P <0.05), but the relationship between age and the lateral wall thickness was not (P >0.05). The relationship between bladder volume and body mass index was significant (P = 0.0001, r = 0.2959). A strong positive and significant correlation was found between the anterior (P = 0.0001) and posterior (P = 0.001) wall thicknesses and body mass index, but the correlation between the lateral wall thickness and body mass index was not significant (P = 0.079, r = 0.113).

Conclusions

Strong, positive correlations were found between the anterior and posterior wall detrusor thicknesses and increased age and body mass index, but the same correlations for lateral wall detrusor thickness were not found.

Section snippets

Material and Methods

From February 2003 to May 2003, 287 healthy children recruited from a primary school participated in the study. All the parents provided written informed consent. Children with a history of daytime or nocturnal enuresis, voiding dysfunction, chronic metabolic disease, recurrent urinary tract infection, urinary stone disease, congenital urinary abnormalities, or neurologic disease were excluded from the study. After a complete physical examination, the body weight and height of all children were

Results

Of the 287 children, 43 were excluded from the study because of daytime or nocturnal enuresis, voiding dysfunction, or abnormal urinalysis findings, leaving the data of 244 children (121 girls and 123 boys) to be analyzed statistically.

The mean age was 10.7 ± 3.6 years (range 7 to 15). The bladder volume and detrusor thicknesses from the anterior, posterior, and lateral bladder walls of all children are presented in Table 1.

The thickness of the anterior and posterior bladder wall and bladder

Comment

Different kinds of radiologic imaging modalities can be used in the evaluation of bladder disorders.6 US is a widely used imaging technique to evaluate the bladder volume and monitor disorders of the bladder in children. In addition to being an easily accessible, noninvasive, simple, and fast examination, US does not use ionizing radiation.6 Trabeculation and thickening of the bladder wall can be shown with cystoscopy and cystography but the quantification of bladder wall hypertrophy can be

Conclusions

The evaluation of the anterior and posterior walls of the bladder with transabdominal high-frequency US is a useful method of assessing bladder wall abnormalities. A correlation was found between wall thickness and age. Therefore, the normal values for all age groups should be determined for comparison with pathologic conditions, so that in future studies, the bladder wall thickness in children with urologic abnormalities, which affect the bladder, can be compared with the normal values.

Cited by (0)

View full text