The significance of pelvic floor support on the pelvic floor muscle functions of women with lower urinary tract symptoms

Abstract Objective To explore the significance of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) on pelvic floor muscle (PFM) function among women with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Materials and methods Four-dimensional ultrasound data of 577 women with LUTS were retrospectively analyzed. The bladder neck and genital hiatus were assessed during resting, coughing, and squeezing. The bladder neck location, genitohiatal size, and genitohiatal location were evaluated with bladder neck distance (BNd) and bladder neck angle (BNa), genitohiatal dimension (GHd) and genitohiatal area (GHAR), and genitohiatal angle (GHa), respectively. Results Compared with women without POP (n = 306), women with POP (n = 271) exhibited higher rates of levator complete avulsion (6.5% vs. 40.2%, P  Conclusion Among women with LUTS, the presence of POP is associated with weaker resting, involuntary, and voluntary PFM functions.