Alpha-adrenergic treatment improves QoL in obese LUTS men

By Nikki Withers, medwireNews Reporter

Alpha-adrenergic medication can significantly improve the quality of life (QoL) of obese men with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), show study findings.

Interestingly, the researchers report that similar improvements were not seen for non-obese patients.

Several studies have reported a significant relationship between LUTS and obesity but efficacy of medical treatment among obese men with LUTS has not been explored, especially regarding the improvement of QoL.

To address this, Yun Seob Song (Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea) and colleagues investigated the efficacy of daily alpha-adrenergic treatment for 8 weeks in male LUTS patients. They compared the improvement in QoL between those who were obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥23kg/m²) and those who were non-obese (BMI <23kg/m²).

A total of 96 men completed the study. All patients were older than 50 years with International Prostate Symptom Scores (IPSS) above 12 points and a prostate volume over 20 mL. Seventy-five patients had an obese BMI and 24 had central obesity, defined as a waist circumference above 90 cm.

Patients were also asked to complete the King’s Health Questionnaire (KHQ) at the start and end of the study, a measure of QoL in LUTS patients. The researchers also assessed changes in IPSS, maximal urinary flow rate (Qmax), and post-void residual volume for all patients.

As reported in BMC Urology, both obese and non-obese patients showed significant improvements in the total IPSS and IPSS QoL after 8 weeks of treatment.

However, there were no significant improvements in total KHQ for non-obese patients, whereas obese patients showed a significant improvement. Specifically, the obese group showed significant improvements in general health, impact on life, role limitations, physical limitation and emotions.

When the effect of central adiposity was assessed, the researchers found only the obese group showed improvement of the IPSS and total KHQ scores. Centrally obese patients showed significant improvements in general health, impact on life, role limitations, physical limitation, personal relationships, emotions and sleep/energy.

“In our study, obese patients showed improvement in 5 domains of the KHQ, but central obesity patients showed improvement in 7 domains of the KHQ”, write Song et al. “This result implies that obesity, especially central obesity, which is regarded as visceral obesity, could impact treatment outcomes.”

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