Interstitial cystitis (IC) was first described as a specific epithelial damage and ulceration, commonly referred to as ‘Hunner’s ulcer’ or lesions. Soon after, two variations of the condition were identified: the ‘classic’ or ulcerative IC was primarily portrayed as a condition characterized by urinary symptoms, markedly reduced bladder capacity, and cystoscopic findings of large irregular lesions –Hunner’s ulcers–, and patches of reddened mucosa with capillaries radiating from a central pale scar; and the ‘non-ulcer’ IC, exemplified by multiple strawberry-like petechial hemorrhages called ‘glomerulations’ and submucosal hemorrhages. Later, bladder pain syndrome (BPS) was defined in 2002 by the International Continence Society as ‘the complaint of suprapubic pain related to bladder filling accompanied by other symptoms such as frequency, in the absence of urinary tract infection and other obvious pathology’.
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