Classification (traditional and National Institutes of Health) and demographics of prostatitis.

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.