Validation study of new clinical scoring - "Apollo Clinical Scoring system" for bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis and comparison of outcome with standard "O'Leary-Sant score".

Aim: Validation of the recently published newer clinical scoring system for bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis and comparison of the results with the pre-existing standard O'Leary-Sant score.

Introduction: The symptoms are our primary guide to disease severity analysis, treatment, and response monitoring. The combined ICSI/ICPI (O'Leary-Sant Interstitial Cystitis Symptom and Problem Index) consist of a four-item symptom and problem index focusing on urgency, frequency, nocturia, and pain. A new scale, assigning more weight to pain and nocturia and adding the domains of sexual dysfunction and psychological impact, has been published by one of the authors (El Khoudary et al. J Women's Health 2002. 18:1361-1368; 7).

Material And Methods: This is a prospective study conducted to validate a newer clinical scoring system, namedht e 'Apollo Clinical Scoring' (ACS) system for patients with bladder pain syndrome/ interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC), and to compare its outcome with the simultaneously applied standard O'Leary-Sant (OLS) score. Thirty-five patients of BPS/IC diagnosed using the ESSIC definition were enrolled in the study and followed for 6 months. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for test-retest reliability, and Cronbach's α for measure of internal consistency, were applied to both scoring systems.

Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient for ACS was 0.715 and for OLS was 0.689. Cronbach's α for ACS was 0.736 and for OLS was 0.698.

Conclusion: The present study suggests that the recently devised Apollo Clinical Scoring (ACS) system for patients of BPS/IC is internally consistent and a reliable scoring system. When compared with OLS in parallel setting, the newer ACS appeared to be marginally better.