Value of the prostatic LDH levels in the diagnosis of bacterial prostatitis

Fifty-four patients aged between 21 and 50 years with typical symptoms of chronic prostatitis and 10 healthy men serving as control group had prostatic-fluid cultures according to the Meares-Stamey technique. Prostatic-fluid LDH levels were also estimated by agar gel electrophoresis. Eight patients were found to have bacterial prostatitis and significantly elevated LDH5/LDH1 isoenzymes ratio, 24 patients fulfilled the criteria for nonbacterial prostatitis and 22 patients were classified as suffering from prostatodynia. The LDH5/LDH1 isoenzymes ratio was found to decrease gradually as the inflammatory elements of the prostatic fluid reduced with the lowest value detected in the control group.