Preoperative prostate MRI may predict urinary continence after prostatectomy: Study

USA: Urethra length measured on MRI before surgery may predict urinary continence after prostatectomy, a recent study has found. The study was published in Radiology, the journal of the Radiological Society of North America, on Jan 18, 2022. 

Urinary continence following radical prostatectomy (RP) is important in determining patients' quality of life. Anatomic measures at prostate MRI have been shown to be associated with continence outcomes. However, there is no clarity on their predictive ability and interrater agreement in comprehensive clinical models.

Against the above background, Hannah Lamberg, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Mich, and colleagues aimed to evaluate the predictive ability and interrater agreement of MRI-based anatomic measurements of post-RP continence when combined with clinical multivariable models in a retrospective cohort study.

For this purpose, the researchers evaluated continence outcomes in men who underwent RP from August 2015 to October 2019. These radiologists completed measure-specific training before participation. Logistic regression models were developed with clinical variables alone, MRI variables alone, and combined variables for predicting continence at 3, 6, and 12 months after RP; some patient data were missing at each time point. Using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), interrater agreement of MRI variables was assessed.