Studies on the role of Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis in prostatitis.

It has definitely been demonstrated that Ureaplasma urealyticum is one etiologic agent of nongonococcal urethritis, a sexually transmitted disease. For this reason it seemed possible that the organisms might cause ascending inflammatory reactions of the prostate. Quantitative determinations of ureaplasmas and Mycoplasma hominis, together with localization studies, were therefore performed to elucidate the importance of these microorganisms in patients with chronic prostatitis. U. urealyticum was found in high numbers in expressed prostatic secretions and urine voided after prostatic massage from 82 (13.7%) of 597 patients with chronic prostatitis. Because numbers of ureaplasmas in first-voided urine and midstream urine were significantly lower, the source of the organisms in these patients was assumed to be the prostate. These data and the results of tetracycline treatment provide sufficient evidence for the etiologic importance of ureaplasmas in chronic prostatitis.