[Asymptomatic prostatitis: a frequent cause of raising PSA]

The Prostatic Specific Antigen (PSA) is one of the best tumour markers currently available, and it is widely employed in the diagnosis and follow up of prostate cancer. Nevertheless, it is not specific for prostatic carcinoma, and an increase in its serum levels can also be related to benign prostatic hyperplasia, inflammation/infection or traumatic manoeuvres on the prostatic gland. Because of its well-known clinical features acute prostatitis does not require PSA evaluation for diagnosis, but other prostatitis (such as category IV NIH prostatitis) can be responsible of an increase in PSA levels without associated symptoms. Category IV prostatitis has a fairly high prevalence, affecting about one third of the adult males. Recently some studies have showed that approximately half of the patients with PSA levels in the grey zone and without symptoms of prostatitis undergo a decrease in PSA levels after a 2-4-week treatment with antibiotics. Thanks to this approach, 20-30% of the patients obtain PSA normalization and consequently avoid prostatic biopsies. In conclusion, the use of antibiotic treatment allows an increase in PSA specificity and a decrease in the number of unnecessary prostatic biopsies. The cost-benefit ratio of this approach has to be verified by means of prospective randomized trials.