Effects of Subclinical Prostatitis on Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Subclinical prostatitis is a very frequent histologic finding in pathological examinations of prostate surgery specimens. We evaluated the correlation between the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and the grades of inflammation in surgical specimens of patients who had undergone operation for BPH without any evidence of clinical prostatitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy five patients with BPH, who had gone through transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) at our department from March 2004 to May 2007, were retrospectively studied. Of the 75 patients, 57 patients were pathologically diagnosed as having a BPH with prostatitis and 18 patients had the only BPH (group G0). Chronic inflammation was graded as I (group G1 scattered inflammatory cell infiltrate within the stroma without lymphoid nodules), II (group G2 nonconfluent lymphoid nodules) or III (group G3 large inflammatory areas with confluence of infiltrate). The serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, PSA density (PSAD), International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and maximum urinary flow rate were compared among the grades of inflammation. RESULTS: In the patients had undergone TURP, prostatic inflammation was found in 76% (57/75). The storage symptoms of IPSS and PSAD were significantly correlated to the extent of inflammation in each groups (p<0.05). No significant correlations were observed between PSA, size of prostate, voiding symptoms, quality of life (QoL) of IPSS, and maximum urinary flow rate. CONCLUSIONS: The extent of chronic inflammation had considerably more relationship with storage symptoms than voiding symptoms and with the increased PSAD. These findings suggest that the subclinical prostatitis may be one of the factors of storage symptoms of BPH patients and postoperative maintained lower urinary tract symptoms.