Introduction: We evaluated the role of the seminal plasma PSA level in the prediction of the response to α-blocker treatment in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Materials and Methods: 18 male patients with lower urinary tract symptoms were enrolled in the study. After their blood was sampled for PSA, ejaculates of all the subjects were obtained. Serum and seminal plasma PSA levels were calculated by Active PSA IRMA kit. Patients were given 4 mg/day doxazosin for a period of 6 weeks, following which their International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) evaluation was repeated. The correlation between serum PSA, seminal plasma PSA and PSA density levels and the percentage improvement in IPSS was investigated. Results: The mean serum PSA level, the mean PSA density and the mean seminal PSA level of the patients were 2.7 ± 1.2 ng/ml, 0.05 ± 0.02 ng/ml/cm3 and 0.7 ± 0.39 g/l, respectively. The percentage improvement in IPSS varied from 26.9 to 53.5%. Serum PSA and serum PSA density were not useful in the prediction of the response to α-blocker treatment, but the seminal PSA levels correlated with the percentage improvement in the IPSS (p = 0.017). Conclusions: Seminal plasma PSA has been found to be a better predictor of the response to α-blocker treatment when compared to serum PSA and PSA density.

Keywords:
Seminal plasma, Prostate-specific antigen, Benign prostatic hyperplasia
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© 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel
2004
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