Introduction and Objectives
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common benign neoplasm in men and it is clinical condition closely related to aging. Clinically, BPH is manifested with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), that undermine the quality of patients’ life to different extent. The pharmacotherapy of BPH comprises the three groups of drugs: alpha 1-adrenergic antagonists, 5-alpha reductase inhibitors and different herbal extracts. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of three-month treatment of BPH with lipidosterolic extract of Serenoa repens (LESR) on prostate parameters assessed by transabdominal ultrasound and to compared attained results with standard drugs such as finasteride and doxazosin.
Material and Methods
Ninety patients with simptomatic, noncomplicated BPH who accomplished inclusion criteria and endorsed the written consent were included in this prospective study. At random they were classified in three groups of thirthy patients. The first group was treated with LESR (320 mg/day), the second group received finasteride (5 mg/day) and the third group was on doxazosin therapy (2 mg/day). Both at the beginning and after three-month treatment, following prostate parameters were assessed by transabdominal ultrasound: transversal diameter (TD), anteroposterior diameter (APD), the volume of prostate (VP) and the volume of residual urine (VRU). The results were analysed statistically.
Results
None treatment caused statistically significant alteration of TD, APD and VP (p > 0.05) assessed by transabdominal ultrasound, although all medications showed the tendency to decrease the beginning values, mostly finasteride. Analysing the results of volume of residual urine (VRU), we found that finastride and LESR decreased basal values insignificantly (p > 0.05). Decrease of VRU achieved statistically significant difference in third group of patients who received alpha-adrenergic antagonist doxazosin (p < 0.01).
Conclusions
Our results are mostly in accordance with actual cognition related to effect of standard drugs such as finasteride and doxazosin on prostate parameters assessed by ultrasound. At the other side, our findings could be an evidence more in the elucidation of mechanism of action and clinical efficacy of LESR in patients with BPH.
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© 2009 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
