International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | February 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 2 Page 417 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Amadi C et al. Int J Res Med Sci. 2018 Feb;6(2):417-421 www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Original Research Article Age-specific serum prostate-specific antigen references range among healthy men in Port Harcourt, Nigeria: a retrospective hospital-based study Collins Amadi*, Ehimen P. Odum INTRODUCTION Prostate cancer has assumed an epidemic proportion around the globe especially among men of the black race. 1,2 Its rising pattern both in incidence and mortality has taken an alarming trend for the past two decades in Nigeria. 3 Port Harcourt is reported to have the highest incidence rate (37.2%) at the moment in Nigeria with men between 70-79years predominating among other age groups. 4 The disease management has additionally been challenging to Urologists owing to the issue of prostate- specific antigen qualities in the diagnosis of the disease. 5,6 PSA has quite some time been described for not being an ideal tumor biomarker for prostate cancer, however this is currently being addressed contentiously with the idea of derivations of PSA indices (velocity, density and free to total ratio) which are endeavors to enhance its sensitivity and specificity for prostate cancer diagnosis. 6 Its serum levels in men have been observed to vary from one geographical location to another, from ethnicity to ethnicity and from race to race with healthy men of the black race having higher levels than their Caucasian and Asian counterparts and its level also correlates with advancing age and the prostate volume. 7-9 Accordingly, Department of Chemical Pathology, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Received: 02 December 2017 Accepted: 30 December 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Collins Amadi, E-mail: collins338@yahoo.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: Total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels increase with advancing age. Its age-specific ranges are being advocated to increase its sensitivity and specificity. This study was aimed to examine the relationship between total PSA levels and age, and to determine the age-specific ranges among healthy men without prostatic diseases in our environment. Methods: In this retrospective hospital-based study, records of men without prostatic diseases who had visited University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital for routine screening for prostate cancer using serum total PSA between 1st January 2012 and 31st December 2016 were retrieved and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation test. A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Records of 476 men aged 38 to 86 years were recruited for the study. The age-specific total PSA reference range using the 95 th percentile total PSA concentration values in each 10year groups were 0-1.60, 0-4.93, 0-6.93, 0- 7.80, 0-9.65, and 0-13.30 for the age groups 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 and >80years respectively. There was a positive correlation between serum PSA concentration and age (rs = 0.395; p<0.001). Conclusions: Total PSA increases with advancing age and its age-specific reference range in this study are similar to findings in our environment but higher than the values found in other parts of the world. We suggest serum PSA normal reference values should be characterized by age and race in our environment. Keywords: Age, Age-specific, Nigeria, Prostate cancer, Reference DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20180278