INTRODUCTION
With the prevailing dogma that urine is normally sterile has been overturned,1, 2 there has been growing evidence that a shift in the normal microbiome of the bladder may play an important role in pathophysiology of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS).3-7 Karstens and Pearce found that bladder urine from women with urge urinary incontinence (UUI) seem to present an altered microbiome compare to urine from asymptomatic healthy individuals,2, 5 and our previous study found that urinary microbiome may play a part in the development of overactive bladder (OAB) symptom.8 However, no research has been published on whether the female urinary microbiome (FUM) affects the severity of OAB while the effects of OAB on quality of life increased with the worsening of the disease,9 and the factors affecting the severity are unclear. In addition, comprehension of the impact of FUM on the OAB severity may help provide guidance for optimized management, while current guidelines propose symptomatic treatment despite the severity of OAB.
Thus, in order to investigate whether the microbiome/microbiota (e.g., diversity, overall community structure, and/or specific organisms) would play a role in the severity of OAB, we describe the FUM analysis using16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing to characterize the relationships between FUM parameters and demographic and clinical characteristics of OAB patients.