Effect of pulsed electromagnetic field therapy on prostate volume and vascularity in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: A pilot study in a canine model

摘要

BACKGROUND. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a result of urogenital aging. Recent\udstudies suggest that an age-related impairment of the blood supply to the lower urinary tract\udplays a role in the development of BPH and thus may be a contributing factor in the\udpathogenesis of BPH. The canine prostate is a model for understanding abnormal growth of\udthe human prostate gland. We studied the efficacy of pulsed electromagnetic field therapy\ud(PEMF) in dogs to modify prostate blood flow and evaluated its effect on BPH.\udMETHODS. PEMF (5 min, twice a day for 3 weeks) was performed on 20 dogs affected by\udBPH. Prostatic volume, Doppler assessment by ultrasonography, libido, semen quality,\udtestosterone levels, and seminal plasma volume, composition and pH were evaluated before\udand after treatment.\udRESULTS. The 3 weeks of PEMF produced a significant reduction in prostatic volume\ud(average 57%) without any interference with semen quality, testosterone levels or libido.\udDoppler parameters showed a reduction of peripheral resistances and a progressive reduction\udthroughout the trial of the systolic peak velocity, end-diastolic velocity, mean velocity, mean,\udand peak gradient of the blood flow in the dorsal branch of the prostatic artery. The pulsatility\udindex and the resistance index did not vary significantly over time.\udCONCLUSIONS. The efficacy of PEMF on BPH in dogs, with no side effects, suggests\udthe suitability of this treatment in humans and supports the hypothesis that impairment of\udblood supply to the lower urinary tract may be a causative factor in the development of BPH.\udProstate 74:1132–1141, 2014. # 2014 The Authors. The Prostate published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.\udThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-\udNonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium,\udprovided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications\udor adaptations are made.