Efficacy and safety of daily mirabegron 50 mg in male patients with overactive bladder: a critical analysis of five phase III studies.

BACKGROUND: Oral pharmacotherapies to treat overactive bladder (OAB) are used less in men despite a similar prevalence of storage symptoms as women. The efficacy and safety of once-daily mirabegron 50 mg was evaluated in male OAB patients from five phase III studies that included placebo or antimuscarinic (tolterodine ER 4 mg or solifenacin 5 mg) as a comparator. METHODS: Three pooled 12-week placebo-controlled studies (mirabegron 50 mg versus placebo) and one 12-week non-inferiority phase IIIb study (BEYOND; mirabegron 50 mg versus solifenacin 5 mg) were used for efficacy (daily micturition frequency, urgency and incontinence episodes) and safety analyses. An additional 52-week active-controlled phase III safety study (mirabegron 50 mg versus tolterodine ER 4 mg) was included in the safety analysis. Male patients aged ⩾18 years with OAB for ⩾3 months were included in the analyses. Patients may also have a history of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)/benign prostatic enlargement (BPE) or concomitant use of α1-blockers. RESULTS: In the pooled studies, mirabegron 50 mg demonstrated superiority versus placebo (treatment difference: -0.37 [95% confidence interval (CI): -0.74, -0.01]) for reducing micturition frequency; improvements in urgency and incontinence were not significantly different between mirabegron 50 mg and placebo. In BEYOND, mirabegron 50 mg was comparable with solifenacin 5 mg for reducing micturition frequency, urgency, and incontinence episodes. Mirabegron was well tolerated at 12 and 52 weeks and overall treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs) were similar to those with placebo. CONCLUSIONS: In a male OAB population with or without LUTS associated with BPH/BPE, mirabegron 50 mg provided similar improvements in urgency, frequency, and incontinence as solifenacin 5 mg, and is a well-tolerated alternative to antimuscarinics. In the three pooled 12-week studies, significant differences were not seen for urgency and incontinence versus placebo, although mirabegron 50 mg did demonstrate significant improvements versus placebo for frequency.

The efficacy and safety of mirabegron compared with solifenacin in overactive bladder patients dissatisfied with previous antimuscarinic treatment due to lack of efficacy: results of a noninferiority, randomized, phase IIIb trial.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of mirabegron 50 mg and solifenacin 5 mg in overactive bladder (OAB) patients dissatisfied with previous antimuscarinic treatment due to lack of efficacy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This randomized, double-blind, phase IIIb, noninferiority study, enrolled male and female patients aged ⩾18 years old, with symptoms of OAB for ⩾3 months, who were dissatisfied with their previous antimuscarinic drug due to lack of efficacy. A total of 1887 patients were randomized to receive mirabegron 50 mg (n = 943) or solifenacin 5 mg (n = 944) daily for 12 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was change from baseline to end of treatment in mean number of micturitions/24 h. Noninferiority was confirmed if the lower limit of the two-sided 95% confidence interval (CI) for the treatment difference between solifenacin and mirabegron was > -0.20. Secondary efficacy endpoints, which included change from baseline in mean number of incontinence episodes/24 h, urgency incontinence episodes/24 h, urgency episodes (grade 3 or 4)/24 h and nocturia episodes/24 h, were analyzed using analysis of covariance. RESULTS: For the primary endpoint, adjusted mean treatment difference (95% CI) in mean number of micturitions/24 h was -0.18 (-0.42, 0.06) and therefore noninferiority of mirabegron to solifenacin was not demonstrated. Both treatments demonstrated clinically meaningful reductions in efficacy variables and were well tolerated, with a lower incidence of dry mouth with mirabegron. CONCLUSIONS: Noninferiority of mirabegron compared with solifenacin for reduction in micturition frequency could not be demonstrated in this population of OAB patients who were dissatisfied with previous antimuscarinic therapy due to lack of efficacy. Both mirabegron and solifenacin improved key OAB symptoms with no statistically significant differences observed between the two treatments. Both drugs were well tolerated.

Is bladder cycling useful in the urodynamic evaluation previous to renal transplantation?

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the usefulness of bladder cycling (BC) in differentiating between urodynamic abnormalities due to reversible bladder dysfunction and those due to preexisting lower urinary tract (LUT) abnormalities, and to determine if BC increases the diagnostic yield of urodynamic investigations (UIs) in these patients. METHODS: Eleven patients with oligoanuria (<300 ml/day) were evaluated with complete UIs. All cases showed low compliance (mean 6 ml/cm H2O) and low cystometric capacity (mean 146 ml) and were placed in a BC program. The indications for UIs were LUT symptoms in 2 patients, LUT abnormalities (myelodysplasia or urethral valves) in 3 patients, or the appearance of an extremely small bladder on cystogram (6 patients). BC was performed through a hypogastric catheter in an outpatient setting. UIs were repeated afterwards. RESULTS: After BC, 5 patients (45%) continued to have low compliance (<8 ml/cm H2O) and 4 patients (36%) had normal UIs. In 2 cases (18%), a previously unrecognized obstruction was diagnosed. No patient with LUT symptoms or abnormalities had a normal UI after BC. Conversely, 4 of 6 patients in whom BC was indicated due to a small bladder on cystogram had normal UIs after BC. CONCLUSIONS: BC is useful in explaining whether high bladder pressure is due to dysfunction or to preexisting disorders, and thus indicating the proper surgery for correction. Suprapubic BC significantly increases bladder capacity thus increasing the diagnostic yield of the UI.