All three papers show clearly that patients with chronic prostatitis had significantly higher tissue pressures than the controls or patients with BPE. In paper III the prostatitis patients also had prostatic hyperplasia, but patients with BPE and /or BOO were excluded from papers IV-V. Although different measurement time-points were used in the three papers, the pressure readings were made 10 seconds after injection in all cases. The results are compiled for illustrative purposes in Table 3.
In all three series the mean intraprostatic tissue pressures were significantly higher in the prostatitis patients (p<0.05) than in the controls. Based on the results of the pre-massage and post-massage tests, the patients discussed in paper V were divided to the subgroups IIIA and IIIB, whereupon it was realized that the intraprostatic tissue pressures at all the measurement points (baseline, 10 sec, 60 sec and 120 sec) were higher in the patients with IIIA than in those with IIIB (p<0.01). The volume of the prostate (papers IV-V), whether 20–40 ml or below 20 ml, did not have any influence on the results.
The new scoring for the NIH-CPSI questionnaire on subjective symptoms, as used in paper V, gave a mean sum of scores of 19.7, range 17.2–22.2, in the case group and 5.8, range 3.0–8.7 in the controls, the difference being statistically highly significant (p< 0.001). The mean pain score was 9.9, range 8.5–11.2, in the case group and 0, range 0–0.3, in the controls, the difference again being statistically significant (p< 0.001). The mean score for voiding disturbances was 3.3, range 2.4–43, in the case group and 0.3, range 0–0.6, in the controls, a further statistically significant difference (p< 0.01). The mean score on quality of life was 6.5, range 5.7–7.3 in the case group and 5.5, range 2.8–8.2, in the controls, the difference not being significant (p> 0.05). When the duration of prostatitis symptoms was divided into four categories in paper V (<5 years, 5–9 years, 10–14 years and > 15 years), 25% of the patients fell into category I, 16.7% into category II, 31.3% into category III and 27% into category IV.
Table 3. Prostatic tissue pressure 10 seconds after injection (summary of PTPM of patients in papers III–V).
| Study No. | N patient | n event | Pressure mean (mmHg) | SD | 95% CI | min | max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| III | A(CP+BPH) | 24 | 24 | 85 | 25 | 75–96 | 36 | 132 |
| B(BPH) | 10 | 10 | 46 | 15 | 35–56 | 20 | 69 | |
| C (Contr) | 9 | 9 | 53 | 15 | 41–65 | 40 | 78 | |
| P < 0.001 A vs C and B | ||||||||
| IV | A (CP) | 42 | 53 | 90 | 21 | 84–95 | 20 | 149 |
| B(contr) | 12 | 15 | 45 | 18 | 35–54 | 13 | 78 | |
| P < 0.001 A vs B | ||||||||
| V | A (CP) L | 48 | 48 | 71 | 24 | 64–78 | 24 | 114 |
| B(contr)L | 12 | 12 | 36 | 16 | 26–46 | 13 | 64 | |
| P < 0.001 A vs B | ||||||||
| V | A (CP) R | 48 | 48 | 79 | 31 | 70–88 | 19 | 153 |
| B(contr)R | 12 | 12 | 44 | 16 | 34–54 | 22 | 67 | |
| P < 0.001 A vs B | ||||||||
| Total | ||||||||
| V A (CP) | 48 | 96 | ||||||
| B(contr) | 12 | 24 | ||||||
| P < 0.05 A (right) vs. B (right), A (left) vs. B (left)P > 0.05 A (left side vs. right side) and B (left side vs. right side) | ||||||||