To investigate changes in whole body pain during urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome (UCPPS) flares.
UCPPS participants at one site of the multidisciplinary approach to the study of chronic pelvic pain research network reported their daily flare status and pain levels in 7 pelvic/genital and 42 extrapelvic body areas (scale = 0-10) for 10 days at baseline and during their first flare. Linear mixed models and conditional logistic regression were used to investigate symptom changes during flares. Analyses were stratified by chronic overlapping pain condition (COPC) status.
Fifty-five out of 60 participants completed the study, 27 of whom provided information on both nonflare (n = 281) and flare (n = 208) days. Pelvic/genital pain intensity (mean change = 3.20 of 10) and widespreadness (mean = 1.48) increased significantly during flares for all participants (all P interaction > .1), whereas extrapelvic pain intensity increased significantly only among participants with COPCs (mean = 2.09; P interaction < .0001). Pelvic/genital and extrapelvic pain also varied on nonflare days but symptom fluctuations were generally ≤1 point (80.0%-100% of participants). Increases of ≥2 points in pelvic/genital pain intensity (odds ratio (OR) = 22.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 4.0-118.6) and ≥1 point in urination-related pain (OR = 9.10, 95% CI = 1.74-47.7) were independently associated with flare onset for all participants.
Our observations of extrapelvic pain increases during flares for patients with COPCs and our independent associations between pelvic/genital/urination-related pain intensity and flare onset may provide insight into mechanisms underlying flare development (eg, common biologic pathways between UCPPS phenotypes and flares), flare management (eg, local vs systemic therapies by COPC status), and patient flare definitions.
Neurourology and urodynamics. 2019 Sep 04 [Epub ahead of print]
Tianlin Xu, H Henry Lai, Ratna Pakpahan, Joel Vetter, Gerald L Andriole, Catherine Bradley, Bruce D Naliboff, Graham A Colditz, Siobhan Sutcliffe
George Warren Brown School, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri., Division of Urologic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri., Division of Public Health Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa., Division of Digestive Diseases, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, University of California, Los Angeles, California.