To evaluate a new method for differentiating inflammatory from noninflammatory prostatitis using the simple and rapid quantification of seminal macrophages and monocytes.

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.

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 < .001). Data from the analysis of receiver operating characteristic curves (area under the curve 0.912 ± 0.073; P < .001) showed a sensitivity of 90.9% and specificity of 86.7% at a cutoff value of 5 MMs/50 hpf. The positive and negative predictive value was 71.4% and 96.3%, respectively. The median concentrations of IL-6, IL-8, and elastase in the patients with CPPS with ≥5 MMs/50 hpf differed significantly (P ≤ .002) from those in the patients with <5 MMs/50 hpf.

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.