The empty supine stress test as a predictor of intrinsic urethral sphincter dysfunction

Abstract

The empty supine stress test is easy to perform, inexpensive, and without significant risk. By itself, a positive empty supine stress test is essentially diagnostic for genuine stress incontinence, and in combination with a fixed urethra, it is diagnostic for intrinsic urethral sphincter dysfunction. In low-prevalence populations, a negative test reliably excludes the presence of intrinsic urethral sphincter dysfunction. However, for high-prevalence and referral populations, the low predictive values of the test limit its usefulness.