Elevation of the serum total and free prostate specific antigen levels after stent implantation in patients with coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND

Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is the most important biochemical marker in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with prostate cancer. In recent years, a relationship between PSA levels and cardiovascular conditions has been described. However, no study has investigated the PSA levels after coronary stenting.

AIM

To investigate the impact of coronary stent implantation on serum total PSA (tPSA) and free PSA (fPSA) levels.

METHODS

This study involved 60 men who underwent coronary angiography for suspected coronary artery disease. Of these, 25 were diagnosed as having angiographically normal coronary arteries (Group 1) and 35 underwent coronary stent implantation (Group 2). Serum tPSA and fPSA levels and f/tPSA ratios were determined in all patients immediately before the intervention and 24 hours and 30 days after the procedure.

RESULTS

In Group 1, there was no statistically significant change in the values of tPSA, fPSA and f/tPSA ratio before and after coronary angiography (p >0.05). In Group 2, tPSA and fPSA values 24 hours after stent implantation were significantly higher than the values at the baseline (p <0.01), whereas f/tPSA ratio did not change (p >0.05). Compared with the baseline, there was no statistically significantly difference in the PSA values 30 days after stent implantation (p >0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrated that serum tPSA and fPSA levels are increased after coronary stent implantation, but f/tPSA ratio is not affected. The findings suggest that serum tPSA and fPSA levels should not be used for the diagnosis of prostate cancer during the first 30 days after coronary stenting.