Hypothesis / aims of study
This systemic review compared Anticholinergic medications with Beta-3- receptor agonist (Mirabegron) in management of patients with overactive bladder(OAB). The primary aim was to compare efficacy, adverse effects, persistence and adherence and cost effectiveness among these two groups of medications. Other properties considered included tolerability, effect in female OAB, combining two groups of medication in management of OAB.
Study design, materials and methods
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses guidelines (PRISMA) were followed for the conduct of this study . We used Healthcare Databases Advanced Search (HDAS) Export software to facilitate search in Medline and EMBASE, and also searched other databases from 2015 to 2020 . Searched terms included: “Overactive bladder”, “Muscarinic receptor antagonist”, “Anticholinergic drugs in overactive bladder”, “ Beta-3-receptor agonists in overactive bladder”, “Antimuscarinics drugs in overactive bladder” “ Detrusor receptors”, “Anticholinergic and Beta adrenergic agonists”, “Mirabegron”. Boolean operators included, “or” and “and”.
151 articles matched the initial search on Medline/EMBASE and the first 100 articles were considered from a search on Google scholar. After removing duplicates 103 articles remained.74 were screened, after excluding 21 studies, 53 full text articles were assessed for inclusion. Using the SQR3 (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review) technique, 20 articles were included in the final qualitative analysis.
Interpretation of results
The International Continence Society (ICS) has recommended use of the terms overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) and detrusor overactivity for a group of lower urinary tract symptoms. The term Detrusor overactivity (DA) is diagnosed on basis of urodynamic evaluation which reveal involuntary detrusor contractions occurring during storage phase. It is further classified into Idiopathic Detrusor Overactivity (IDO) and Neurogenic Detrusor Overactivity (NDO). ICS in 2002 introduced term OAB which is based on symptomatic diagnosis. OAB is characterized by urgency, with or without urge incontinence, and usually with frequency and nocturia . The ICS recommends endorsement of the term OAB recognizes that patients with this symptom syndrome are almost always treated by nonsurgical means on an empirical basis. The two most important classes of drugs used are Antimuscarnics and Beta adrenoreceptors.
Antimuscarnics drugs act by inhibiting the acetylcholine action (Ach) . Ach causes acts on muscarinic receptors and stimulates detrusor contraction .Within parasympathetic system there are five different subtypes of muscarinic receptors. Only M2 and M3 receptors are present in bladder. Although, M2 is more frequent, it is M3 which is more involved in detrusor function . Most of the anticholinergics have similar efficacy in terms of symptomatic relief .Side effect profile however varies depending on affinity of receptor, drug levels in serum and the mode of administration of drug ,Table 5.
There are 3 types of β-adrenoceptors ( β1,β2,β3)in bladder detrusor muscle as well as urothelial lining [24], β3 being most predominant of them [25]. β3 receptors excitation causes detrusor smooth muscle relaxation [26]. Mirabegron which is β3 receptor agonist, has been extensively used as well as studied for treatment of OAB. Mirabegron has been found to be a safe, effective ,well-tolerated. As far as incidence of dry mouth is concerned , it had similar results to placebo in almost all trials .
Our review reveals that Mirabegron is as efficacious as any other Antimuscarnics, has better tolerability (Including Elderly),has better adverse effect profile, is cost effective, has better persistence and adherence rates at 12 months. However, this study had its limitations in terms of being a literary review, study being limited to last 5 years and only articles with full articles included.