A patient with seminal vesiculitis prior to acute chlamydial epididymitis

This is the first report of a case of seminal vesiculitis prior to acute chlamydial epididymitis. At the first visit to the clinic, the patient wished to check whether he had Chlamydia trachomatis in his genital tract, because his wife had been diagnosed as having chlamydial cervicitis. He had no specific symptoms at that time; however, transrectal ultrasonograpy (TRUS) revealed swelling of seminal vesicles, which suggested the presence of seminal vesiculitis. Two days after the first visit, he had high-grade fever and was diagnosed as having acute epididymitis caused by C. trachomatis. We had previously reported that seminal vesiculitis was always complicated with acute epididymitis, so this case could provide important evidence that seminal vesiculitis might precede acute epididymitis. It suggested that acute epididymitis could be affected by seminal vesiculitis via the retrograde transmission route.