Quantifying symptoms in men with interstitial cystitis/prostatitis, and its correlation with potassium-sensitivity testing.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether men previously diagnosed with prostatitis also have pathology originating in the bladder.


METHODS
We administered the pelvic pain and urgency/frequency (PUF) questionnaire and the potassium-sensitivity test (PST) to 50 patients with prostatitis presenting in urological and primary care, and to 14 controls. In a separate control group of 22 men, the urethra was irrigated with KCl or NaCl (11 each) before and after experimental injury of the urethral mucosa.


RESULTS
All 50 patients with prostatitis had PUF scores of > or = 7; 77% were positive for the PST. All 14 controls had PUF scores of 1 or 0 and a negative PST. In the urethral irrigation study in controls, KCl but not NaCl provoked urethral pain after mucosal injury. Before injury, neither KCl nor NaCl caused symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
The high rate of positive PST in patients with "classic" prostatitis indicates that pathology originating in the bladder may be an important source of symptoms in most. In patients with prostatitis and female patients with interstitial cystitis, symptoms may arise not from separate disease entities but from a continuum of epithelial dysfunction and potassium cycling that may be present throughout the lower urinary tract.
Parsons
C Lowell
CL
Division of Surgery/Urology, University of California-San Diego Medical Center, 200 West Arbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92103-8897, USA. mseva@ucsd.edu
Rosenberg
Matt T
MT
Sassani
Pejvak
P
Ebrahimi
Kamyar
K
Koziol
James A
JA
Zupkas
Paul
P
D002908:Chronic Disease; D018856:Cystitis, Interstitial / Q000150:complications*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000209:etiology; D011189:Potassium Chloride; D011472:Prostatitis / Q000209:etiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014522:Urethral Diseases / Q000150:complications; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000209:etiology
D011189:Potassium Chloride