[Ultrasonography of pelvic floor muscles in women with urinary stress incontinence].

Ultrasound examinations have become since beginning of the eighties one of the auxiliary examination methods in urogynaecology. Evaluation of the position and mobility of the neck of the urinary bladder practically replaced lateral chain urethrocystography. With the improving differentiating capacity of ultrasound equipment it is possible to visualize some periurethral and paravaginal structures which participate in the support of the urethra and urethrovesical junction by paravaginal and periurethral structures in women (fig. 1). In recent years many papers were published where for visualization nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is used [1, 12, 19]. The functional and physiological condition of these tissues is assessed by physical, urodynamic and ultrasonographic examinations and also by cystourethroscopy and manometry [7, 11, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16]. Despite this the greater part of anatomical knowledge of the supporting apparatus is derived from pathological studies and peroperative observations.