A STUDY ON CORRELATION OF SERUM PROSTATE SPECIFIC ANTIGEN WITH CLINICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL VARIABLES IN PATIENTS OF PROSTATOMEGALY

Abstract

Background: In clinical practice, biopsies are generally performed only when the results ofprostate specific antigen (PSA) test or digital rectal examination (DRE) are abnormal. This leads to misdiagnosis of most small prostatic cancers present in many older men. Patients with lower urinary tract infection (LUTS) who have serum PSA levels higher than 4ng/ml are primarily advised to undergo prostate biopsy to rule out cancer. However, PSA is organ specific not disease specific, so the presence of other prostate diseases such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis may influence its effectiveness for cancer detection. Hence, the PSA based prostate cancer detection is fraught with high false positive rate.

Aim:To evaluate the utility of PSA assay as a method of investigation in diagnosis of prostatic lesion.

Objectives: The use of Serum PSA levels for the early detection of prostate cancer and evaluate its role with other modalities for diagnosis of prostate cancer and to diagnose different diseases of prostate, i.e. prostatitis, BPH in prostatomegaly, and its correlation with Serum PSA levels.

Materials and Methods: This prospective descriptive study was conducted in Index Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre, Indore, M.P,India in the period of August 2019 to July 2021. The patients were selected from the outdoor Department of General Surgery.

Results: A total of 80 male patients presenting with LUTS were included. Their mean age was 68.66 years. The majority i.e. 41 of the study group were in the age group of 61-70 years. 42 of patients had Serum PSA < 4ng/ml. Biopsy proven adenocarcinoma cases 34% of the cases are in the age group of 61-70 years. Out of the biopsy proven adenocarcinoma cases, DRE was suspicious of malignancy in 89%.

Conclusion: Serum PSA levels have a significant correlation with the age group, with the increase in age there is rise in Serum PSA levels. Transabdominal ultrasound, DRE and Serum PSA has high sensitivity in diagnosis of prostatomegaly but it was found that none of the screening tool has got much efficacy in differentiating carcinoma prostate from benign hypertrophy, but the combination of DRE and Serum total PSA or DRE, Serum total PSA and ultrasound abdomen showed higher efficacy in diagnosis of carcinoma prostate. Increase in Serum PSA is directly related to carcinoma, but there is no absolute cut-off for Serum PSAfor diagnosis of carcinoma.

Key-Words: Prostate specific antigen, Prostatomegaly, Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy, Digital Rectal Examination, International Prostate Severity Score, Carcinoma Prostate.