Function of the Urethra in Continent Women

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests funds for two purposes: 1) Career Development: The applicant plans to obtain a Master of Science degree in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis from the University of Michigan. The career goals include short and long-term goals. Short-term goals include the obtaining the Master Degree and beginning an innovative well-designed patient-oriented research project under the mentorship of a highly productive clinical researcher. The long-term goals include developing into an independent patient-oriented researcher with expertise in electrodiagnosis and urethral function, enhancing research abilities with a better understanding of methodology and design, designing follow-up studies to prevent and treat neuromuscular injuries to the urethral sphincter, submission of an R01 to fund such studies, and developing research mentoring skills to begin training the next generation of patient-oriented clinical researchers. 2) Research Project: The specific aims of the research plan are: 1. To acquire high-quality neuromuscular signals from the urethra using concentric needle electromyography (EMG; with quantitative motor unit analysis) and current perception threshold testing to test the null hypothesis that there are no differences in urethral neuromuscular function in: i) Caucasian and African American women; ii) Continent and stress incontinent women; and iii) Continent nulliparous and parous women. 2. To establish quantitative parameters of urethral sphincter function in women of various races. Normative ranges will be calculated for EMG, current perception thresholds, and urethral pressures for Caucasian and African American women. These data can then be used by other centers as reference data.