Diagnosis of prostatitis at this time is prescribed by a doctor with a very simple procedure. In addition to the rare atypical forms of the disease, the diagnosis of acute prostatitis is relatively easy.
During the treatment of the disease, the patient needs to undergo a series of laboratory and instrumental tests. Often patients are concerned about why they need a general PSA blood test to look for prostatitis. Not everyone understands the role of this sign in the diagnosis of the underlying disease.
What is PSA?
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a special glycoprotein produced exclusively by the cells of the prostate gland. Its main role is to liquefy spermatozoa and activate spermatozoa during ejaculatory formation.
This protein can be found in the blood, and since it is only produced in the prostate, it exhibits partial function and all types of damage.
It is widely used in the diagnosis of diseases such as:
- Chronic prostatitis;
- Benign prostatic hyperplasia - prostate tumor;
- Malignant neoplasms of male organs - prostate cancer.
The general PSA blood test in chronic prostatitis can reveal the progression of the disease and its dangerous complications, manifested by the degeneration of damaged cells into atypical cells. with the formation of prostate cancer.
Prostate-specific antigen is a tumor marker that can indicate the presence of a tumor at an early stage of tumor development.
Normal stats
Since the protein is synthesized in the tissues of the male gland, the presence of small amounts of protein in the blood is the norm. The normal screening threshold for tumor marker activity is blood values up to 4 ng/ml.
The amount of protein directly depends on the following factors:
- The age of the man. There is a definite correlation between the age of the patient and the gland's tracer production;
| Age | PSA, ng/ml |
| 40-49 | 2. 5 |
| 50-59 | 3. 5 |
| 60-69 | 4. 5 |
| >70 | 6, 5 |
- How often you have sex;
- The presence of an inflammatory process in the prostate gland;
- Physical trauma and organ damage;
- Postponing surgical intervention or specific diagnostic procedures (prostate massage, digital rectal examination);
- Taking medication.
All of these aspects can affect the amount of antigens in the blood, and sometimes confuse doctors. That is why it is important to know how to correctly pass the PSA blood test for general prostatitis in men, in order for subsequent therapy to be successful.
Prepare PSA
Before a man donates blood for prostate-specific antigen detection, he must follow several important points to avoid misinterpretation of the end result.
To avoid laboratory errors, patients should note the following characteristics:
- You must not eat for 8 hours before the blood sample is drawn. You can drink tea, juice or water.
- Avoid cycling, stationary cycling, or hiking (>5 km) 24 hours before the start of the study.
- 1 week before the test, you need to limit sex and masturbation, eat spicy, hot, smoked foods.
- If the patient is undergoing transrectal ultrasound (TRUS), digital rectal examination, colonoscopy, or bladder catheterization, wait at least 7 days before determining PSA in the blood.
- After a prostate biopsy or prostate massage, you need to wait 2 weeks.
Only when all these rules are followed can it be said that the PSA blood test for prostatitis in general will be really reliable.
Decoding and goals of the PSA . test
The main purpose of such an examination is the ability to control the course of the chronic form of the disease and to quickly identify problems if malignancy (tumor formation) of the prostate gland occurs.
In diseases such as acute, chronic, bacterial, congestive prostatitis, PSA levels may increase slightly up to 5 ng/ml. This is not yet the cause of panic. If, after initiation of adequate drug therapy, the indicator does not normalize, this is considered an absolute sign of organ perforation on subsequent histological examination.
Normally, the larger the volume of the prostate gland, the more cells that are capable of producing glycoproteins. It has been clinically proven that 1 gram of organ tissue in benign hyperplasia synthesizes 0. 35 ng/ml of antigen. The same index for cancer was 3. 5 ng/ml.
This ratio allows physicians to have high confidence in predicting the likelihood of developing malignancies in chronic prostatitis. According to statistics, 83% of patients have cancer at the same time due to prolonged inflammation in the male gland. This allows us to consider this pathology as a predictor of cancer.
Inference
Blood tests for PSA in prostatitis are part of the mandatory examinations for urologists. Its importance can hardly be overestimated, as it can reliably indicate the formation of atypical cell growths, leading to the development of malignancies.