MEDICINE & HEALTH/RHODE ISLAND

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic condition of urinary urgency, frequency, and suprapubic pain in the absence of bacteruria. It is part of the painful blad-der syndrome whose known causes are tuberculosis, stones, malignancy, previous chemotherapy of the bladder, and pelvic radiation. Interstitial cystitis is a diagno-sis of exclusion when no known cause of painful bladder can be identified. It has classically been diagnosed by the presence of “Hunner’s ulcers”, a lesion noted on cystoscopy in 1915.1 The word “ulcer” has proven to be a misnomer; the lesion is actually a coalescence of vessels. IC is