Table 1.

Categories of the Prostatitis Syndromes, According to the NIH Classification System(20).

Category	Symptoms
I. Acute bacterial prostatitis	Associated with severe symptoms of prostatitis, systemic infection, and acute bacterial urinary tract infection
II. Chronic bacterial prostatitis	Caused by chronic bacterial infection of the prostate with or without symptoms of prostatitis and usually with recurrent urinary tract infections caused by the same bacterial strain
III. Chronic pelvic pain syndrome*	Characterized by symptoms of chronic pelvic pain and possibly symptoms on voiding in the absence of urinary tract infection
IV. Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis	Characterized by evidence of inflammation of the prostate in the absence of genitourinary tract symptoms; an incidental finding during evaluation for other conditions, such as infertility or elevated serum prostate- specific antigen levels

^*This category is subdivided into inflammatory (category IIIA) and noninflammatory (Category B) prostatitis.