Clustering of UPOINT domains and subdomains in men with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and contribution to symptom severity.

PURPOSE: The UPOINT (Urinary, Psychosocial, Organ specific, Infection, Neurologic/systemic and Tenderness of skeletal muscle) system characterizes men with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome according to 6 domains. Some domains have multiple possible criteria but to our knowledge grouping these criteria have never been validated. Domain clustering may provide clues to the etiology or treatment of individual phenotypes. We examined domain clustering patterns and the contribution of individual domains and subdomains to symptom severity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the records of 220 patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome. Of the patients 120 were characterized by UPOINT alone and 100 were characterized by subdomain, including urinary (voiding and storage), psychosocial (catastrophizing and depression), organ specific (bladder and prostate), infection (prostate and urethra) and neurologic/systemic. The NIH-CPSI (National Institutes of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index) was used to measure symptom severity.

RESULTS: The urinary, psychosocial, infection and neurologic/systemic subdomains had a similar incidence but organ specific-prostate was more common than organ specific-bladder (51% vs 33%). On cluster analysis with multidimensional scaling urinary, organ specific and tenderness clustered together, as did neurologic, infection and psychosocial. Of the subdomains organ specific-prostate and organ specific-bladder diverged but the others clustered together. The domains that significantly contributed to the total NIH-CPSI score were urinary, psychosocial and tenderness. Only psychosocial contributed independently to the quality of life subscore.

CONCLUSIONS: UPOINT domain criteria capture a homogeneous group for each domain except organ specific, in which bladder and prostate diverge. Clustering of domains specific to the pelvis (urinary, organ specific and tenderness) vs systemic domains (neurologic, infection and psychosocial) implies 2 patient populations that may differ in pathophysiology and treatment response. The primary drivers of pain in patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome are pelvic floor tenderness, depression and catastrophizing.