Question Title: cystitis cystica vs. interstital cystitis

You might see I wrote a few days ago about my 5yr old's chronic UTI's. Thank you very much for your reply. As the time grows closer for her cystoscopy I've had more contact with her pediatric urologist's office and gleaned the words "cystitis cystica" as what he plans on looking for. A web search reveals very little about it, but I keep seeing interstital cystitis. It looks rather grim to me with such things as "...no know cure." My question for you is are they the same thing? And what do you know of as the current treatment modalities for the cystitis cystica.
Its starting to get a bit scary from a "mom" point of view. Thank you for your time, Sincerely, Robin

Dear Robin,
Thanks for your question. The lining of bladder is called urothelium. Cystitis cystica is the bladder wall appearance secondary to inward growth of layers of bladder wall. In cystitis cystica, the center of the nest of urothelium undergoes liquefaction to produce cystic swellings. Cystitis cystica is also present in 60% of normal bladders. It should be distinguished from cystitis follicularis, a non-cancerous response to chronic bacterial infection. During cystoscopy it appears as punctate yellow submucosal (lining of the bladder) nodules, which have been given the descriptive name bacteriuric bumps. Overall none of the above mentioned conditions are cancerous. You may however want to get a cystoscopy to exclude any other bladder pathology.

Hope this information will be of some help to you.

This information is provided for general medical information purposes only. Please consult your physician for diagnostic and treatment options pertaining to your specific medical condition. Stephen Liroff, MD at the Henry Ford Hospital Department of Urology has experience in the evaluation and treatments of problems such as you describe. He would be most interested in helping you. You can reach him through our toll-free number (1-800-653-6568).

We can also arrange local accommodations through this number if this is your need. Please bring any x-rays (not just the reports) as well as any physicians' notes and lab test results that you may be able to obtain. These will help us greatly.

Sincerely,
HFHS M.D.-A.T.
*keyword: UTI, cystitis cystica

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