title: Classification (traditional and National Institutes of Health) and demographics of prostatitis.
abstract: This article reviews the National Institutes of Health (NIH) classification system for prostatitis and summarizes the baseline analysis of the Chronic Prostatitis Cohort Study, a longitudinal study, which has enrolled 488 patients diagnosed with category III prostatitis. The prevalence of category IIIA in this cohort was 54% to 90%, depending on the cut points used. In all, 8% (37 of 488) had > or =1 localizing uropathogen. However, leukocyte and bacterial counts did not correlate with severity of symptoms as assessed by the NIH Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index. Continued follow-up study of this cohort will likely answer important questions about the natural and treated history of this syndrome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois, USA. ajschaeffer@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Schaeffer
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D015995:Prevalence; D011472:Prostatitis / Q000097:blood / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States