Pressure variations in the female urethra measured by the infusion technique: Is it an artifact?

The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that pressure variation in the female urethra, as registered by the Brown‐Wickham technique, is an artifact due to infusion of fluid into the urethra. Sixteen women with various lower urinary tract disorders underwent pressure registration in the urethral high pressure zone for 5 minutes using the infusion method, followed by pressure registration using a water column pressure head. In nine patients, well‐defined pressure variations were observed during infusion; similar stepwise pressure decreases were found in these patients using the water column method. Because the stepwise decreases with the latter method can be due only to genuine relaxations of the urethral wall, obtaining similar patterns with these two techniques indicates that the infusion method is reliable in detecting urethral pressure variations.