Future assessments of overactive bladder

Overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) is a symptom syndrome including urinary urgency often associated with frequency, nocturia and sometimes incontinence. Clinical assessment of OAB is based on patient self-reporting. Unfortunately many patients struggle to distinguish between urgency and the urge to void and others do not discriminate between urgency and stress urinary incontinence. Because of the current lack of objectivity in the diagnosis process, we believe that discovery of a reliable biomarker for OAB would be helpful in diagnosing the syndrome, monitoring response to treatment and quantifying treatment efficacy. Detrusor overactivity (DO) is one of the underlying causes of OAB, however, it is only identified in 50 % of patients and detection is measured by urodynamics which is an invasive procedure. To date, detrusor wall thickness and levels of nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), prostaglandins, urine cytokines and C-reactive protein have been shown to be altered in patients with OAB and DO and thus may be useful as potential biomarkers for OAB. In this article we review the latest research on OAB biomarkers and discuss the future of biomarkers in the diagnosis and treatment of OAB. Although several putative biomarkers have been demonstrated to correlate with the diagnosis of OAB, future work is required to assess their value in diagnostics and assessment of treatment efficacy. © Touch Briefings 2012.