The Age-specific Reference Ranges for Prostate-specific Antigen obtained from Health Promotion Center

Ku, Ja Hyeon; Kim, Joon Mo; Song, Yun Seob; Kim, Min Eui; Lee, Nam Kyu; Park, Young Ho; Ahn, Jae Uk

Abstract

PURPOSE: We intend to define age-specific ranges for serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and to investigate the relationship of age to serum PSA in Korean healthy men.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
From April 1992 to February 1997, 7,718 Korean men aged 30 to 79 years visited to Soonchunhyang health promotion center and were examined with serum PSA. We evaluated serum PSA of 2,321 Korean healthy men aged 50 to 79 years(1,943 aged 50 to 59 years, 292 aged 60 to 69 years, and 86 aged 70 to 79 years) using Hybritech Tandem-R aasay. Statistical analysis was performed by simple linear regression analysis using SPSS.
RESULTS
Average serum PSA of 2,321 Korean healthy men was 1.25+/-1.02ng/ml, and mean value for serum PSA for men aged 50 to 59 years was 1.18+/-0.95ng/ml; for 60 to 69 years, 1.48+/-1.19ng/ml; and 70 to 79 years, 1.99+/-1.18ng/ml. Age-specific reference ranges for serum PSA for men aged 50 to 59 years were 0-3.1ng/ml; for 60 to 69 years, 0-3.9ng/ml; and for 70 to 79 years, 0-5.5ng/ml, respectively. Serum PSA concentration was correlated with age(r=0.35, p-value<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
The serum PSA concentration was correlated with age and age-specific reference ranges for serum PSA in Korean healthy men were lower than those in white men. Therefore, we suggest that age-specific reference ranges for serum PSA in Korean should be defined in order to increase the detection rate of localizing prostate cencer in younger ages, and to decrease the risk of missing prostate cancer in older ages.