ITALIAN VALIDATION OF PELVIC PAIN AND URGENCY/FREQUENCY PATIENTS SYMPTOMS SCALE (PUF) QUESTIONNAIRE

Parsons et al proposed the PUF scale as a non-invasive and accurate diagnostic tool in the assessment of patients with interstitial cystitis. A PUF score of 15 or higher was associated with an 84% chance of a positive with the intravesical potassium sensitivity test. The test-retest reliability was demonstrated based on 90 pairs of Italian version of PUF scales (50 from healthy volunteers and 40 from IC/PBS patients) of completed 2 weeks, which resulted in a reliability coefficient of 0.97. The Mann-Whitney U test for the scores between healthy individuals and IC/PBS patients confirmed the good discriminatory ability of the questionnaire in patients with different severity of LUTS. Our results demonstrated that the PUF score related well to symptom severity, presence of frequency, nocturia, urgency, dysuria, and pain and it was closely related to investigation outcomes especially endoscopically and with bladder capacity.