Research

Funding the Findings!

Currently, research grant applications are being funded, and six National Institute of Health (NIH) proposals were submitted last fall for funds to further promote our research efforts. In collaboration with CBC’s Zimmern lab, researchers from Dr. Jeremiah Gassensmith’s lab and Dr. Nicole DeNisco’s lab have received a grant. The researchers engineered a dye called BactVue. The dye may potentially label cells with an active bacterial infection in the bladder. This technology would vastly improve a clinician’s ability to visually identify and target infected tissues specifically.

Hot off the Press!

• Were you aware that patient questionnaires can guide clinicians to optimal treatment plans?
  With improved uniformity across patient questionnaires for stress urinary incontinence (SUI), healthcare professionals would be better poised to identify optimal treatment pathways. To this end, researchers at the Cain Bladder Center sought to first determine which of a wide variety of questionnaires have been used most frequently across the globe over the last five years. Interestingly, of the 52 different questionnaires considered, there were five that stood out. With these five questionnaires as a starting point, it’s possible to standardize a set of SUI outcome assessments, such that clinicians could optimize treatment recommendations.

• Acting on a recommendation from the experts...
  Following a recommendation from the Female Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) Surgical Publication Working Group, which is formed of experts from prominent organizations, a group of researchers at the CBC developed and implemented the use of a specific dataset to design and standardize future studies in the SUI field. The framework could allow future surgical interventions for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) to be determined objectively and compared across centers in a clinically meaningful way.
• Knowledge gaps remain for a common condition that has been around for centuries...
  Despite that urinary tract infections (UTIs) and reinfections have been occurring for centuries, did you know there remains a critical need for standardized diagnosing, testing, and managing (treating and monitoring) of women with recurrent UTIs? Antibiotics, which are a first-line of treatment for UTIs, are problematic because improper use and overuse has led to antibiotic resistance worldwide. Therefore, in some cases, antibiotics may fail to resolve UTIs and recurrent UTIs, leaving people with great discomfort and a diminished quality of life. A review article recently published by Dr. Zimmern investigated alternative strategies for treating these infections, such that UTIs and recurrent UTIs could be treated effectively without antibiotics. Ranging from electrofulguration (an in-office procedure) and the direct delivery of therapeutic agents to the bladder using engineered living materials to d-mannose and vaccines, alternative opportunities exist. Although many non-antibiotic strategies for treating and preventing UTIs have demonstrated proof-of-concept and larger clinical trials are now necessary.

• Incontinence can be durably improved with a single procedure!
  A long-term study including over 100 patients with urinary incontinence and early-stage bladder prolapse found that using a procedure called anterior vaginal wall suspension (AVWS) can offer long-lasting clinical improvements and ultimately, enhance quality of life. The AVWS procedure demonstrated a 78.8% “dry rate” within the first year of intervention and a 48.1% “completely dry rate.”

References

1. Papp SB, Seyan Z, Khan Z, Kenee PRM, Christie AL, Zimmern PE. Systematic Review of the Global Literature on Uncomplicated Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections in Women: Underscoring Major Heterogeneity. Urology. Published online June 2024:S0090429524004564. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2024.06.015
2. Rovner E, Chermansky C, Costantini E, et al. Recommendations of the SUFU/AUGS/ICS Female Stress Urinary Incontinence Surgical Publication Working Group: A common standard minimum data set for the literature. Neurourology and Urodynamics. 2024;43(8):1753-1764. doi:10.1002/nau.25445
3. de Araujo Paula, J, Christie A, Zimmern P. FROM RECOMMENDATIONS TO EVERYDAY PRACTICE; A REDCAP DATABASE TO IMPLEMENT RECENTLY RELEASED GUIDELINES FROM THE SUFU/AUGS/ICS FEMALE STRESS URINARY INCONTINENCE SURGICAL PUBLICATION WORKING GROUP. In: ; 2024.
4. Zimmern P. Gaps in knowledge and recurrent urinary tract infections in women. Current Opinion in Urology. 2024;34(6):452-463. doi:10.1097/MOU.0000000000001226
5. Chao TC, Kuhlmann PK, Christie AL, Alhalabi F, Zimmern PE. Quality of life after anterior vaginal wall suspension for incontinence and prolapse repair with mixed, urge, or stress urinary incontinence. Continence. 2024;11:101339. doi:10.1016/j.cont.2024.101339