A hospital based study on reference range of serum prostate specific antigen levels

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels are known to vary with race and ethnicity, environmental factors, lifestyle, metabolic and physiologic changes and advancing age. This study was designed to determine age specific serum PSA level in healthy Indian men and its comparison with that reported in different populations of the world. METHODS A total of 1300 adult men who attended Executive Health Check-up programme in a tertiary care hospital in Haryana, India, were included in the study. Forty seven men were excluded from the analysis because of urological conditions affecting PSA values. Overall, 1253 men were analyzed for age specific PSA values. RESULTS The age specific reference range of serum PSA values was 0.71 ng/ml in those younger than 40 yr; 0.85 ng/ml in 40-49 yr; 1.13 ng/ml in 50-59 yr group; 1.45 ng/ml in 60-69 yr group; 1.84 ng/ml in 70-79 yr group and 2.35 ng/ml in men older than 80 yr. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS Our study provided the age-specific reference range of serum PSA in healthy men in India. The data suggested that the PSA levels were associated with increasing age.