UroToday.com - The long anticipated Japanese guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of interstitial cystitis endorsed by the Japanese Urological Association has now been published. Homma and colleagues from Tokyo and throughout Japan have written a concise guideline backed by 220 references. The guideline may well form the basis for an Asian guideline now under consideration, and will no doubt be highly influential in Asia and around the world.

For the guideline, IC is defined as "a disease of the urinary bladder diagnosed by three conditions:

1)lower urinary tract symptoms such as urinary frequency, bladder hypersensitivity and/or bladder pain;

2)bladder pathology proven endoscopically by Hunner's ulcer and/or mucosal bleeding after over-distention; and

3) exclusion of confusable diseases." The term "hypersensitive bladder syndrome" is suggested for the symptom syndrome associated with IC or IC-like conditions, because hypersensitivity would be more inclusive than pain in that it incorporates both patients with and without pain…