Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Conceived and designed the experiments: VS. Performed the experiments: VS CE. Analyzed the data: VS DB. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
Exploring different sampling sites and methods is of interest for studies of the epidemiology of HPV infections in the male. Expressed prostate secretions EPS are obtained during digital rectal examination DRE , a daily routine urological diagnostic procedure, following massage of the prostate.
Urethral swabs and EPS samples were obtained from a consecutive sample of men mean age Overall, The concordance between the urethral samples and EPS was The sensitivity of urethral samples for overall HPV detection was Compared to analysis of urethral samples only, the analysis of EPS increased the HPV prevalence in this population with Research on optimal methods and anatomical sites for sampling are essential for enabling informative studies.
A variety of different anatomical sites in men have been studied, including glans penis, prepuce, penile shaft, distal urethra, anal canal, perianal area, scrotum, semen and urine [1] — [5] , but prostate secretions have to our knowledge not been studied so far. Expressed prostate secretion EPS is obtained during digital rectal examination DRE, a daily routine urological diagnostic procedure following massage of the prostate, and could thus represents a convenient new type of sample for studies of the epidemiology of HPV in the male.
EPS has been commonly used in urology ever since the Meares-Stamey 4-glass test, which included a quantitative culture of pure EPS, was launched in [6] and became the gold standard for assessing the bacteriological and inflammatory state of the lower urinary tract in urological patients. The two-glass or pre-post-massage screening test [7] , [8] is recommended by European Association of Urology to differentiate between bacterial prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain syndrome in patients with prostatitis-like symptoms, if an acute urogenital infection and STD can be ruled out [9].
