Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between the Visual Prostate Symptom Score (VPSS) and International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS).
Methods: We enrolled 240 new male patients who had visited National Police Hospital more than twice during a 6-month period starting from July 2013. At initial visit, the Korean version of the IPSS and VPSS, uroflowmetry, and transrectal ultrasonography were used to evaluate urinary symptoms. After medication, IPSS and VPSS questionnaires were issued again. The Spearman correlation test and the Mantel-Haenszel test were used to evaluate the relationship between the IPSS and VPSS.
Results: The median age, total prostate volume, total IPSS, and total VPSS were 59.0 years, 28.0 mL, 12, and 9, respectively. Total VPSS, VPSS obstructive symptoms, VPSS irritative symptoms, and VPSS quality of life (QoL) significantly correlated with the total IPSS, IPSS obstructive symptoms, IPSS irritative symptoms, and IPSS QoL, respectively (correlation coefficient, P-value: 0.632, <0.001; 0.431, <0.001; 0.696, <0.001; and 0.799, <0.001; respectively). The change in the total IPSS after treatment also significantly correlated with the change in total VPSS after treatment (correlation coefficient, P-value: 0.364, <0.001). There were significant correlations between maximal flow rate and IPSS/VPSS obstructive symptoms (correlation coefficient, P-value: -0.190, 0.004; -0.269, <0.001, respectively). Additionally, there was a significant increase in the ratio of the maximal flow rate <15 mL/sec to VPSS obstructive symptoms as the severity of the VPSS obstructive symptoms increased (P trend <0.001).
Conclusions: VPSS might be useful in evaluating lower urinary tract symptoms at the initial visit and assessing these symptoms at longitudinal follow-up examinations.
Keywords: Lower urinary tract symptoms; Prostatic hyperplasia; Questionnaires.