Diagnosing prostate gland inflammation right now is a very simple procedure for a doctor. Apart from the rare atypical forms of the disease, it is relatively easy to diagnose acute prostatitis.
During the treatment of the disease, the patient needs to undergo a series of laboratory and organic examinations. Patients often wonder why they should have a general PSA blood test for prostatitis. Not everyone understands the role of this indicator in the diagnosis of the underlying disease.
What is PSA?
Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a specific glycoprotein produced exclusively by prostate gland cells. Its main role is to liquefy the sperm and activate the sperm during the formation of ejaculation.
This protein can be found in the blood and since it is only produced in the prostate, it partially indicates its function and any kind of damage.
It is widely used in the diagnosis of diseases such as:
- Chronic prostatitis?
- Benign prostatic hyperplasia - prostate adenoma?
- Malignant neoplasms of the male organ - prostate cancer.
A general PSA blood test in chronic prostatitis can show the progression of the disease and a dangerous complication of the disease, which is manifested by the degeneration of damaged cells into atypical ones with the formation of prostate cancer.
Prostate-specific antigen is a cancer marker that may indicate the presence of a tumor at an early stage of its development.
Normal indicators
Since the protein is synthesized in the tissues of the male gland, the presence of a small volume in the blood is the norm. The screening threshold for the normal activity of a cancer marker is a value up to 4 ng / ml in blood.
The amount of protein depends directly on the following factors:
- The age of the man. There is some correlation between how old the patient is and the activity of producing a marker from the gland.
| Age, years | PSA index, ng / ml |
| 40-49 | 2. 5 |
| 50-59 | 3. 5 |
| 60-69 | 4. 5 |
| >70 | 6. 5 |
- The regularity of sexual intercourse.
- The presence of an inflammatory process in the prostate.
- Physical injury and organ damage.
- Postponed surgeries or specific diagnostic surgeries (prostate massage, digital rectal examination).
- Drug intake.
All of these aspects can affect the number of antigens in the bloodstream and sometimes even confuse doctors. This is why it is important to know how to properly pass a PSA blood test for general male prostatitis so that further treatment is successful.
Friday PSA
Before a man donates blood for the detection of a specific prostate antigen, he must observe some important points that prevent the misinterpretation of the final result.
To avoid laboratory errors, the patient should consider the following characteristics:
- You should not eat 8 hours before the blood draw. You can drink tea, juice or water.
- Avoid cycling, static cycling or long distance hiking (>5 km) 24 hours before the start of the study.
- 1 week before the test, you should avoid sexual intercourse and masturbation, eating spicy and smoky foods.
- If the patient has undergone transrectal prostate ultrasound (TRUS), digital rectal examination, colonoscopy or bladder catheterization, it is necessary to wait at least 7 days before the PSA is determined in the blood.
- After a prostate biopsy or prostate massage, you should wait 2 weeks.
Only if all these rules are followed can we say that the PSA blood test for generalized prostatitis will be truly reliable.
Decoding and PSA test targets
The main purpose of such an examination is to check the course of the chronic form of the disease and to quickly identify the problem if malignancy (tumor formation) occurs in the prostate.
In diseases such as acute, chronic, bacterial, congestive prostatitis, the PSA level may increase slightly to 5 ng / ml. This is not yet a cause for panic. If, after adequate drug treatment, the index does not normalize, then this is considered an absolute indication for organ puncture with subsequent histological examination.
Normally, the larger the prostate volume, the more cells are able to produce glycoprotein. It has been clinically proven that 1 gram of organ parenchyma in benign hyperplasia synthesizes an additional 0. 35 ng / ml of antigen. The same cancer rate is 3. 5 ng / ml.
This ratio allows doctors with a high degree of reliability to judge the likelihood of developing malignant neoplasms in chronic inflammation of the prostate gland. According to statistics, 83% of cancer patients suffered from prolonged inflammation of the male gland at the same time. This allows us to consider this pathology as a prognostic factor for cancer.
conclusion
The blood test for PSA in prostatitis is part of the mandatory examination of urological patients. Its importance can hardly be overestimated, as it can reliably indicate the formation of atypical cell growth, which leads to the development of malignant neoplasms.