Although OAB is not life-threatening, it is a condition that can persist for years if not treated appropriately.
When diagnosing the condition, healthcare providers look for four features common in people with OAB.
When urinary urgency occurs at night, it is referred to as nocturia.
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Nocturia will often manifest with an abrupt awakening from sleep and a rush to the bathroom to urinate.
People with OAB will typically compensate for urinary urgency by going to the bathroom frequently.
Urinary frequency can occur in the absence of urinary urgency.
In such cases, OAB is a less likely cause.
Polyuria at night is aptly described asnocturnal polyuria, while polyuria in the daytime is called diurnal polyuria.
Global polyuria, the key diagnostic measure for polyuria, is excessive urine output in 24 hours.
It is also the one feature of OAB that can be measured quantitatively.
The normal adult urine output should be anywhere from 12 to 36 mL/kg/day.
Urge Incontinence
People with OAB often experience a form ofurinary incontinenceknown as urge incontinence.
Urge incontinence differs from otherforms of incontinencein that urinary urgency is involved.
When they occur together, the condition is referred to as mixed incontinence.
Not everyone with OAB will experience urinary incontinence.
Chief among these are bowel symptoms which may be directly or indirectly linked to OAB.
These includeirritable bowel syndrome,degenerative disc disease, fibromyalgia, andchronic fatigue syndrome.
Functional constipation, also known as chronic idiopathic constipation, is diagnosed when no specific cause can be found.
Women over 40 are far more likely to experience this than men.
Dehydration
Polyuria is almost invariably linked to an increased risk ofdehydration.
Studies have long suggested that this promotes urinary incontinence in people with OAB.
With a bladder diverticulum, the same can occur due tobladder outlet obstruction.
In rare cases, a bladder diverticulum can cause the organ to rupture, requiring emergency surgery.
Not surprisingly, the severity of depression typically corresponds to the severity of OAB symptoms.
Some studies suggest that OAB is linked to the deterioration of executive function rather than the urinary tract.
Although OAB is more common in older adults, most older adults do not get it.
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