Standards for the study of IC and Painful Bladder Syndrome
• physicians recently gathered in Copenhagen to discuss the development of standards for the study of IC and painful bladder syndrome
• 23 European physicians participated in this three day meeting; . diagnostic procedures, including history, physical examination, laboratory tests, cystoscopy and morphological investigations on bladder biopsies were disussed
• consensus was obtained on several key points and participants plan to create a database for patients evaluated via the new standards
• a report has been published: Nordling J et al. Eur Urol 2004;45:662-9

International Consultation On Interstitial Cystitis, Japan
• the International Consultation On Interstitial Cystitis, Japan, 28-30 March 2003, Kyoto formed the first step in a multi-stage international approach aimed at redefining IC and draw-up new evidence-based criteria for this condition

NIH Workshop on vulvodynia
• the report from the NIH Workshop held in April 2003 entitled, Vulvodynia: Toward Understanding a Pain Syndrome, is now available: go to the site and select the keyword ‘vulvodynia' and click ‘display'

go to NIH site