Diagnostic Imaging of the Prostate

Abstract

Due to its high incidence, inflammation of the prostate is a significant clinical problem which still has not been clearly defined. Prostatitis is a generic term which may be misused in daily practice and offered as a diagnosis based solely on clinical findings without precise data from the physical examination. In an attempt to clear up some of the confusion regarding painful benign conditions of the prostate and to create a common terminological framework, in 1978 Drach proposed a classification based on clinical and laboratory findings which is still valid:

• acute bacterial or viral prostatitis (and prostatic abscess);

• chronic bacterial prostatitis, usually secondary to an incompletely eradicated acute form;

• chronic nonbacterial prostatitis, characterized by no history of urinary infection and constant sterility of the prostate secretions, which is puruloid due to the presence of macrophages;

• prostatodynia, a condition similar to the chronic inflammatory form but with no history of urinary infections and normal prostatic secretions.