Age and total and free prostate-specific antigen levels for predicting prostate volume in patients with benign...

To investigate the predictive values of free prostate-specific antigen (fPSA), total PSA (tPSA) and age on the prostate volume.

The data of 2148 patients with lower urinary tract symptoms were analyzed retrospectively. The patients who had transrectal ultrasonography guided 10 core biopsies owing to the findings obtained on digital rectal examination and presence of high PSA levels (PSA = 2.5-10 ng/dl), and proven to have BPH histopathologically were included in the study. Age, tPSA, fPSA and the prostate volumes (PV) of the patients were noted.

One thousand patients that fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The PV of the patients were significantly correlated with age, tPSA and fPSA (p < 0.001 and r = 0.307, p < 0.001 and r = 0.382, p < 0.001 and r = 0.296, respectively). On linear regression model, fPSA was found as a stronger predictive for PV (AUC = 0.75, p < 0.001) when compared to age (AUC = 0.64, p < 0.001), and tPSA (AUC = 0.69, p = 0.013).

Although tPSA is an important prognostic factor for predicting PV, the predictive value of fPSA is higher. PV can easily be predicted by using age, and serum tPSA and fPSA levels.