New Method for Differentiating Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome IIIA From IIIB Involving Seminal Macrophages and Monocytes

Objectives To evaluate a new method for differentiating inflammatory from noninflammatory prostatitis using the simple and rapid quantification of seminal macrophages and monocytes. Methods Patients affected with chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) were classified as having the IIIA (n = 11) and IIIB (n = 30) subtypes according to the peroxidase positive leukocyte concentration in semen; 18 healthy individuals served as controls. Seminal inflammatory markers, including polymorphonuclear elastase, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8, and numbers of macrophages/monocytes (MMs) per 50 fields of 1000× magnification (high-power field [hpf]), were determined for all patients. Results The numbers of MMs/50 hpf correlated significantly with the peroxidase positive leukocyte counts and IL-8, IL-6, and polymorphonuclear elastase levels (all P P P ≤ .002) from those in the patients with Conclusions The results of our study have shown that the quantification of seminal macrophages and monocytes is a simple, rapid, and reproducible technique by which to differentiate chronic prostatitis/CPPS IIIA from IIIB.