1. ¹St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY, USA
2. ²Fundacion Puigvert/ CM Teknon, Barcelona, Spain
3. ³PAN-Klinik am Neumarkt, Cologne, Germany
4. ⁴GH Pitié-Salpétrière, Paris, France
5. ⁵Ospedale S. Anna, Como, Italy
6. ⁶CHU Saint Louis, Paris, France
7. ⁷Zentralkrankenhaus St-Juergenstrasse, Bremen, Germany
8. ⁸Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusettes, USA
9. ⁹Medical Sciences University of the São Paulo Santa Casa Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil
10. ¹⁰Taunton & Somerset Hospital, Taunton, UK
11. ¹¹University of Toronto & Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada
12. ¹²La Sapienza University, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Rome, Italy
13. ¹³Ismar Healthcare, Lier, Belgium
14. ¹⁴Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Correspondence: FC Lowe, Department of Urology, St Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital, 425 West 59th Street, Suite 3A, New York, NY 10019, USA. E-mail: fclowemd@aol.com

Received 23 January 2005; Accepted 27 February 2005; Published online 14 June 2005.

Abstract

Disease progression has become an important issue for the management of lower urinary tract symptoms/benign prostatic hyperplasia (LUTS/BPH). Although several risk factors have been identified, no specific patient risk profiles have been established that can be useful in the day-to-day management of LUTS/BPH. In this study, an international panel of urologists developed a risk classification based on the attribution of a risk score to 243 unique patient profiles. From the perspective of clinical decision making, it was concluded that postvoid residual, symptom severity and maximum flow rate are the most relevant determinants of the risk of disease progression.