Lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD) was associated with bladder inflammation and tissue hypoxia with oxidative stress. This study investigated the profiles of urine inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers in females with LUTD and to develop a urine biomarker-based decision tree model for the prediction. Urine samples were collected from 31 female patients with detrusor overactivity (DO), 45 with dysfunctional voiding (DV), and 114 with interstitial cystitis/ bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). The targeted analytes included 15 inflammatory cytokines and 3 oxidative stress biomarkers (8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosin, 8-isoprostane, and total antioxidant capacity [TAC]). Different female LUTD groups had distinct urine biomarker profiles, including IL-1β, IL-2, IL-8, IL-10, eotaxin, CXCL10, MIP-1β, RANTES, TNFα, VEGF, NGF, BDNF, 8-isoprostane, and TAC. The urine biomarker-based decision tree, using IL-8, IL-10, CXCL10, TNFα, NGF, and BDNF as nodes, demonstrated an overall accuracy rate of 85.3%. DO, DV, and IC/BPS accuracy rates were 74.2%, 73.3%, and 93.0%, respectively. Internal validation revealed similar overall accuracy rate. Random forest models supported the significance and importance of all selected nodes in this decision tree model. Urine inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarker profiles of different female LUTDs were different. This internally validated urine biomarker-based decision tree model predicted different female LUTDs with high accuracy.

Background and Objectives: Treatment for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV) must deal with immunosuppression as well as infections associated with compromised immune system, such as tuberculosis (TB). Our aim was to overcome the gap in the literature concerning the risk of incidental TB after diagnosis of AAV. Materials and Methods: This retrospective population-based cohort study was based on the data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We used a novel algorithm to identify patients with newly diagnosed granulomatous polyangiitis (GPA) or microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2012. The primary outcome was risk of incidental TB. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between AAV and incidental TB. Results: A total of 2,257 patients with AAV and a propensity-score matched cohort of 9,028 patients were studied. Overall, patients with AAV were at a 1.48x higher risk of contracting incidental TB than were patients in the matched cohort (adjusted HR 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-2.15). Note that the highest risk of contracting incidental TB was in the first two years following a diagnosis of AAV, with a nearly 1-fold increase in risk (adjusted HR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.01-3.60). Female AAV patients were 3.24x more likely than females without AAV to develop TB (adjusted HR 3.24; 95%CI, 1.85-5.67). Conclusion: Patients with AAV face an elevated risk of contracting incidental TB, particularly within the first two years after AAV diagnosis. The risk of contracting TB is higher among female AAV patients than among females without AAV.