Research progress on noninvasive diagnostic methods of benign prostatic hyperplasia and bladder outlet obstruction

Abstract

Objective To review the research progress on diagnostic methods of bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Methods To retrieve the related literatures about the progress in diagnostic methods of due to BPH in the PubMed, EMBASE and Wangfang databases by the key words of BPH, BOO and noninvasive diagnostic method from January 2008 to January 2014, and summarize the recent progress at home and abroad. Results The pressure-flow study is the gold standard to diagnose BOO, but it's invasive, expensive and complicated. In recent years, diagnostic methods of due to BPH appear in clinical context, namely the non-urodynamic measurements and urodynamic measurements. The non-urodynamic measurements include international prostate symptom score, residual urine volume, prostate specific antigen, ultrasonic measurements and the urodynamic measurements include maximal urinary flow rate, penile cuff test, near infrared spectroscopy, doppler resistance index. New diagnostic methods have the advantages of being noninvasive, simple and good repeatability. Conclusions Compared with the traditional pressure-flow study, new diagnostic methods of due to BPH have noninvasive, simple and well repeatable characteristics, but there are still no sufficient evidences to prove that they can take the place of the pressure-flow study as the gold standard to diagnose due to BPH. The application value of diagnostic methods of due to BPH in clinical needs more clinical trials. Key words: Prostatic hyperplasia; Bladder outlet obstruction; Noninvasive diagnostic methods