Norepinephrine contents of human prostatic hyperplasia: differences between pathological subtypes.

Tissue norepinephrine content in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) was evaluated to detect possible histological differences in BPH subtypes and to investigate the correlation between norepinephrine levels and age, prostatic weight and clinical symptom score, respectively. Specimens were obtained from 28 patients who underwent transurethral resection of the prostate. Pathologically, 18 out of 28 specimens were classified as fibromyoadenomatous hyperplasia and the remaining 10 as fibromuscular type. Norepinephrine content in the fibromyoadenomatous type was 133.1 +/- 23.1 ng/g, whereas it was 340.3 +/- 60.5 ng/g in the fibromuscular type. Norepinephrine level in the former group was significantly lower than that in the latter group (p < 0.001). In both groups, there was no correlation between norepinephrine content, age and clinical symptom score, while the norepinephrine content had a reverse correlation with prostatic weight only in the former group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, norepinephrine levels were dependent upon histological differences, especially upon the amount of smooth muscle elements, in the evaluated specimen. Severity of prostatism and patients' age showed no correlation with tissue norepinephrine content.