ABSTRACT
This chapter will review indications, techniques, and results of radiological (x-ray) and ultrasound (US) imaging of the upper urinary tract (UUT) and lower urinary tract (LUT) in women with lut dysfunction (LUTD). Although some of the techniques may be considered based on their historical contribution, a knowledge of radiological imaging and the information obtained from these images remains an important part of the development of our understanding of pelvic anatomy and function. The crux of clinical research and ultimately clinical practice concerned with imaging in urinary incontinence (UI) and pop is to establish that there is a clinical benefit to the measurements that are obtained. Imaging is a method to evaluate anatomy of the individual patient and to diagnose conditions depending on the morphological or functional modifications of individual organs or structures. Imaging can confirm or augment the findings of physical examination and may provide information that is otherwise unattainable. The identification of the clinical scenarios in which this additional information is beneficial to the management of the patient is the ultimate measure of the utility of the study. Although we may postulate that intraobserver and interobserver variability of physical examination is higher when compared to imaging, this may not necessarily always be true, as well as the assumption that a correlate always exists between the two modalities.
