PRE TREATMENT DECISION-MAKING IN PROSTATISM - A STOCHASTIC-ANALYSIS BASED ON THE MOST USED DIAGNOSTIC-TESTS

In order to estimate the probabilities that a patient would belong to subgroups created by the diagnostic tests most used by European urolog ists four hundred and twenty-one consecutively referred prostatism pat ients were studied. It was demonstrated that all the qualities describ ed by these tests were distributed in such a way that the presumed acc uracy of the tests might result in a 20 per cent variance in the numbe r of treated patients. A simple self administered home flow test, whic h was significantly correlated to the maximum flow rate, was shown to be stronger correlated to the symptoms of the patients compared to any other quality. A stochastic table for prostatism was constructed, whi ch may be used for estimations of the influence different decision mak ing may have on the outcome of treatments in this kind of patients.