Incidence of Sub-Clinical Prostatic Disease at Autopsy in the University College Hospital, Ibadan

This prospective study was undertaken to ascertain the incidence, histology and pathological features of different types of asymptomatic or sub clinical prostatic diseases. Prostate glands were obtained from 79 consecutive adult males aged 30 years and above who died from non-prostate related diseases at the University College Hospital Ibadan over an eighteen months period. The glands were weighed and fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin. The sampling method of the prostate gland described by Vainer et al. (2011) was employed in this study. Paraffin-embedded sections were stained with haematoxylin and eosin and were systematically examined for focal prostate disease. The patients’ ages ranged from 30 to 86 years. The most common lesions were nodular hyperplasia (81%), followed by adenocarcinoma (6.3%). Three cases (3.8%) had schistosomiasis. Adenocarcinoma and nodular hyperplasia occurred in relatively older patients than those with normal glands or chronic prostatitis/schistosomiasis (p = 0.05). There was an increase in weight of the prostate with age (p < 0.001) and normal prostate glands weighed significantly less than diseased glands (p = 0.02). Focal prostatic atrophy was observed in 24.1% and metaplastic changes were observed in eight (10.1%) of the cases. Prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) was not seen in any case, not even amongst the adenocarcinomas. The low frequency of prostatic adenocarcinoma and the absence of high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia in this study despite the observation of increasing number of prostatic carcinoma requires further investigation.