Wonderful journal article

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

I have come across a wonderful journal article on I.C. from the American Family Physician website, by a Dr Julius F. Metts from the University of California. It has information on epidemiology, etiology, approaches to diagnosis, therapy and treatments. It also has some very good, clear diagrams. I found it very insightful, informative and easy to understand. I thought I would share the link with you all, in case you haven't seen it! If you want to print it, you have to download the PDF version!

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/1001/p1199.html

Jem x

[cosake]

Thank you for the great link !

[Jem]

Your welcome Colleen! I thought it pretty much summed everything up, in 8 short pages. :-))

Jem x

[cosake]

This is one of those articles that I could pass on to friends or family members who are interested in learning a little bit more about my IC. It's detailed, but not too detailed, and written mostly in lay terms that any regular person could understand.

Right now, my basic explanation to everyone is that the inside lining of my bladder gets irritated and causes back and abdominal pains and frequency; and that I have found diet-related triggers that I now avoid to help prevent problems.

Thanks again and Merry Christmas !

[Jem]

That's exactly what I thought! Your welcome again, and Merry Christmas to you too! x

[kadi]

First thing I'll say is that I'm a high school teacher, not a doctor, and I'm reading this through a patient's eyes, not as any expert.

The patient information handout is very well written & very clear. In terms of how it explains IC, I think it gives a good overview of research theories so far & can be very helpful in trying to explain IC to loved ones with no prior knowledge of the condition.

A few concerns with the article the handout comes from: The article was written nine years ago, in 2001. There have been some changes in IC research since then. The article presents a positive view of bacillus Calmette-Guérin, which did not do well in further clinical trials & is currently not recommended for IC. Some of the treatments are not well known for IC, and some are contraindicated with medicines we may already be taking for IC. I'd just do more research on the treatments it mentions before committing to any of them.

[cosake]

I do agree with kadi about the treatment options info being dated. I was focusing most on the explanation of what IC is and not the treatments.

I was concerned about the publication date as well, but did find the explanation to be accurate from all of the recent info that I've read.

[kadi]

Hi Jem,
I didn't mean to say that overall the article wasn't helpful. What jumped out at me was the Procardia, Tagamet & the BCG. I've never heard of anyone using Procardia in my seven years on this site. When I asked my pharmacist about Tagamet, he said I couldn't take it with the Elavil I'm currently on--an interaction that neither I nor my urologist was aware of. While the author didn't actually recommend the BCG, anything with a 60% success rate is likely to look very good to a patient, since not much else has a success rate that high. But further studies after 2001 didn't bear that out.

As I said before, the author wrote an excellent overview of what was known about IC and its treatments in 2001. And yes, some of those theories are still predominant today.

My first urologist wanted to do a hydrodistension with chlorpactin, a bleach like substance that can damage the bladder lining. I was fortunate enough to find this website & to read that chlorpactin is an outdated & painful treatment & cancelled my appointment. So, my philosophy on any treatment now is that a doctor can recommend and we can discuss options, but I'll also do my own research because that first doctor I saw sure didn't tell me his treatment plan was obsolete!

I think IC is much better known now than in 2003 when I got sick and I believe most patients and doctors have much more access to information now than we did before.

One of the great things about the internet is that it has put articles written by urologists right into our hands! And forums like this give us a chance to discuss them thoughtfully.

Thank you for bringing to us an overall excellent article and for being willing to note aspects of the article that may provoke discussion.
Best,
.