Table 1. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for healthy men and IIIA CP/CPPS patients with significant prostatitis-like pain.

	Healthy men	Patients
Inclusion criteria	1. Men underwent health examination in our health-check center 2. ≤ 45 years old due to the increased risk of prostate cancer or hyperplasia 3. ≥ 18 years old	1. Outpatients with chronic prostatitis diagnosed by our hospital or other clinic within 1 year
	Primary screen:
Exclusion criteria	1. Previous surgery and permanent medication of urogenital tract (chronic prostatitis was not included)
	2. Urogenital congenital malformation and malignancy
	3. Neurogenic disease of the bladder
	4. Lithiasis
	5. Urine-culture/urethral-swab test to exclude bacterial infection and special infection (e.g. mycoplasma, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae)
	6. Infertility to reduce potential interference by idiopathic etiology
	7. Other special conditions (e.g. nephritis, and other systemic disorders)
	Symptom assessment: 8. NIH-CPSI total pain score > 4 to exclude men with chronic pelvic pain	8. NIH-CPSI total pain score < 10 to exclude patients without significant prostatitis-like pain
	EPS examination:
	9. EPS sample can not be obtained for enough volume
	10. EPS WBC/hpf ≥ 10 in EPS to exclude IV type prostatitis	10. EPS WBC/hpf ≤ 10 in EPS to exclude IIIB type prostatitis
	11. V1/V2/EPS/V3 bacterial culture positive to exclude urogenital tract infection (including I and II type prostatitis)
	12. Positive examination of ureaplasma urealyticum, chlamydia trachomatis, neisseria gonorrhoeae and Mycoplasma in EPS

Grey: common criteria for both healthy men and patients.