Hydrodynamic model of the urinary bladder derived from stepwise cystometry in the rat

The urinary bladder of the rat was examined by nearly ideal, unit step volume infusions. Spontaneous detrusor contractions occurred in vivo but ceased soon after death. A hydrodynamic model of the post mortem bladder wall was evaluated. Elastic properties were described by introducing two types of compliances; a dynamic compliance for fast response characteristics and a static compliance for the relaxed bladder wall. These compliances were easy to measure and found to vary with the degree of bladder expansion. The influence of viscosity was well described by a model with two relaxation time constants and was the optimal model in almost 50 per cent of the measurements. The long time constant was found to increase with bladder expansion.