Effect of Chronic Urinary Retention over Serum Prostate-Specific Antigen and Its Role in Histopathological Diagnosis

Background: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) rises in all types of retentions and also in carcinoma prostate. The raised levels of PSA levels due to urinary retention may raise a false suspicion of carcinoma prostate in these patients. Unlike chronic urinary retention (CUR), the effect of acute urinary retention (AUR) on serum PSA levels had been studied in detail as evident from the past literature. Objectives: The objectives of the study were first to estimate and interpret serum PSA levels in adult males with CUR due to prostatic pathology, second to assess the need of taking prostatic biopsy based on the studied PSA trends, and finally to assess the prostatic histopathology in cases of persistently high PSA levels after 6 weeks. Materials and Methods: This was an observational follow-up study including 41 patients diagnosed with CUR due to prostatic etiology, matching the inclusion and exclusion criteria. On presentation, serum PSA levels were recorded. Retention was relieved by either per urethral catheterization or suprapubic catheterization. PSA levels were recorded after 24 hours, 1 week, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks and PSA trends were noted. Prostatic biopsy was advised for only those subjects in whom PSA did not attain the baseline value of 4 ng/mL within 6 weeks. The histopathological report of the biopsy was followed in each patient for studying its association with PSA trends. Results: Mean PSA at the time of presentation was 17.92 ng/mL. PSA trends showed that in the majority of the patients “Suspected benign group” (80.49%, n = 33), PSA returned to <4 ng/mL within 6 weeks of catheterization. Six patients, the “Borderline group” (14.63%), showed a downtrend in their PSA trends but could not attain baseline value. PSA trends in only two patients, the “Suspected malignant group” (4.87%), showed a comparative constant or an uptrend. All patients in the “Suspected benign group” and a majority of the “Borderline group” patients (83.33%) had a histopathologically confirmed benign prostatic pathology. Out of the two highly suspected malignant cases, only one patient (50%) had carcinoma prostate on final histopathology. Conclusion: PSA rises mainly in carcinoma prostate, but it falsely rises in all urinary retentions. The relationship between AUR and PSA had been studied in detail as evident from the past literature but needs to be established in patients with CUR. A period of 4 to 6 weeks can be safely employed for waiting for PSA to fall back to normal in CUR. A biopsy is required only for patients in which PSA is constantly high to rule out carcinoma prostate.