title: [Chronic prostatitis and biofilm].
abstract: Nowadays, inflammatory prostatic diseases represent one of the main social and economic problems that affect male gender in our country. The disease's prevalence is estimated at 11-14% in European countries, and males aged between 20 and 50 years are the most affected subjects. Bacterial prostatitis is documented at a very low prevalence (7-13% of prostatitis overall considered) due to either reduced utilization of viral and bacteriological tests (Meares test, urethral swab, bacterial and viral PCR) or to the possibility that individual patients show a scarce expression of bacterial disease in biological fluids, because of intraglandular biofilm presence, with subsequent spreading of the sole plankton microrganisms. Actually, the presence of a biofilm may possibly represent the reason for difficult diagnoses and ineffective antibacterial treatments.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Area Critica Medico-Chirurgica - Unita di Urologia, Universita degli studi di Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bartoletti
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects; D002908:Chronic Disease; D002939:Ciprofloxacin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003268:Contraception Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015242:Ofloxacin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011472:Prostatitis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012747:Sexual Partners; D015231:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Bacterial / Q000453:epidemiology; D015229:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral / Q000453:epidemiology; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002939:Ciprofloxacin; D015242:Ofloxacin