Agreement Analysis of the Magnetic Resonance Defecography and Clinical Examination Findings in the Evaluation of Pelvic Floor Disorders

INTRODUCTION: Pelvic floor disorders (PFD) are more frequently seen in women and impairs quality of life. The aim of this study was to find agreement between the clinical examination and magnetic resonance defecography (MRD) findings of female patients with PFD related symptoms and to discuss the findings of MRD in PFD.
METHODS: Seventy-six female patients with complaints of PFD and undergone MRD were included in the study. The pubococcygeal line was used as the reference line for pelvic organ prolapse evaluation in MRD. MRD and clinical examination findings were compared.
RESULTS: Agreement between the MRD and clinical examination findings concerning the presence of cystoceles, rectoceles, entero/peritoneocele was 75%, 50%, and 60.52% respectively. However, the agreement was weaker in terms of pelvic organ prolapse grading (44% for cystoceles, 32% for rectoceles). Since there was no uterine prolapse detected on clinical examination an agreement test for uterine prolapse could not be performed.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: MRD is complementary to clinical examination in terms of its ability to comprehensively evaluate all compartments simultaneously. MRD provides additional information to the clinical examination in patients with symptoms related to PFD and should be utilized, in symptomatic cases, if the clinical examination findings are negative or if multicompartmental pathologies are suspected.