Colombo et al used a subjective urinary symptom questionnaire for evaluating patients being treated for urinary bladder cancer. This can help monitor the patient over time. The authors are from University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, University of Palermo and Beilinson Hospital in Tel Aviv.
Parameters:
(1) frequency of urination (interval in hours between urinations)
(2) nocturia (number of urination episodes at night)
(3) dysuria
(4) urethral burning
(5) episodes of hematuria during the treatment period
(6) episodes of urethrorrhagia during the treatment period
(7) suprapubic pain
where:
• I could not find a definition for urethrorrhagia, which I take as meaning urethral hemorrhage.
|
Parameter |
Finding |
Points |
|
interval in hours between urinations |
> 4 hours |
1 |
|
|
3 - 4 hours |
2 |
|
|
1 - 2.9 hours |
3 |
|
|
< 1 hour |
4 |
|
number of nocturnal urinations |
none |
1 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
|
|
2 or 3 |
3 |
|
|
>= 4 |
4 |
|
dysuria |
none |
1 |
|
|
mild |
2 |
|
|
moderate |
3 |
|
|
severe |
4 |
|
urethral burning |
none |
1 |
|
|
mild |
1 |
|
|
moderate |
2 |
|
|
severe |
3 |
|
episodes of hematuria |
none |
1 |
|
|
1 to 4 |
2 |
|
|
>= 5 |
3 |
|
episodes of urethrorrhagia |
none |
1 |
|
|
1 to 4 |
2 |
|
|
>= 5 |
3 |
|
suprapubic pain |
none |
1 |
|
|
mild |
1 |
|
|
moderate |
2 |
|
|
severe |
3 |
where:
• The intervals between urinations were given as 3-4 hours and 1-2 hours, which left 2-3 hours potentially uncovered.
• The original table did not include entries for absent urethral burning or absent suprapubic pain. One option is to score these as 0, but other parameters that were absent are scored as 1, so this pattern was followed.
total subjective symptom score =
= SUM(points for all 7 parameters)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 7
• maximum score: 24
• The higher the score, the greater the subjective symptoms.
Specialty: Hematology Oncology, Nephrology
