PSA levels in men with spinal cord injury and under intermittent catheterization.

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. 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. 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). Clean intermittent catheterization increased PSA levels approximately doubling its value.