PSA Levels in Men With Spinal Cord Injury and Under Intermittent Catheterization

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate serum PSA levels of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) submitted or not to CIC in comparison to those of the general population. Methods: We retrospectively studied 140 men with SCI admitted in our department from January 2005 to May 2009. Thirty-four SCI patients had PSA levels available, comprising 21 under CIC and 13 without CIC. Patients under CIC performed it 4-6 times a day and mean time of catheterization was 72.4 months (range 30-192). The most common etiology of SCI was fall from height (33%), followed by car/motorcycle crashes (15%). Control group was composed by 670 healthy men that were referred to our service to evaluation of Kidney donation or cancer prostate screening. We used Student's t-test and variance analysis (ANOVA) for age and PSA comparison between the groups. Results: Overall, patients with SCI and controls had similar mean age (54 vs. 57 years old, P = 0.11) and mean PSA level (1.81 vs. 1.95 ng/ml, P = 0.66). SCI patients were divided into with and without CIC. Patients without CIC had similar mean age (60 vs. 57 years old, P 0.11) and similar PSA values when compared to controls (1.72 vs. 1.95 ng/ml, P = 0.89). Patients under CIC were compared to controls with similar age (50 vs. 47 years, P = 0.0332) and their PSA levels were greater (1.86 vs. 0.79 ng/ml, P = 0.026). Conclusion: Clean intermittent catheterization increased PSA levels approximately doubling its value. Neurourol. Urodynam. 30:1522-1524, 2011. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.