Evaluation of serum and seminal levels of prostate specific antigen in men with spinal cord injury.

PURPOSE

Recent studies have used prostate specific antigen (PSA) as an indicator of prostate gland activity in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). Thus, the present study was performed to determine whether SCI can induce alterations in total serum and seminal PSA, and to compare the findings obtained to those of normal men (controls).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 44 men with SCI (cases, mean age +/- SD 33.98 +/- 9.12 years) and 44 controls (mean age +/- SD 34.09 +/- 9.16 years) were studied. Blood and semen samples were collected after 3 days of abstinence from ejaculation and stored at a controlled temperature between -70 and -79C. Seminal fluid was kept at room temperature for 15 minutes before storage. The tests for determination of total serum and seminal PSA were performed using AxSYM equipment and reagents.

RESULTS

The mean total seminal PSA obtained from patients (0.609 mg/ml) was lower than the 0.773 mg/ml value obtained from controls (p = 0.0012), but the mean total serum PSA of patients (0.918 ng/ml) did not differ significantly from that obtained from controls (0.976 ng/ml, p = 0.9967).

CONCLUSIONS

SCI patients have a significant decrease in total seminal PSA but total serum PSA is not affected by this lesion.