Q: What is considered a normal PSA value for a 50-year-old man, and how often should you test?
THS
A: Dramatic elevations in the PSA value can be seen with bacterial prostate infections and these can take considerable time to return to pre-infection levels. Often, a single four-week course of antibiotic therapy is all that is required, followed by careful follow-up. In this instance, the patient is very young, and while older standards fixed the threshold for an abnormal PSA at 4.0 ng/ml, many experts now agree that a lower value may be more reasonable as a cut off, especially in younger patients. An average PSA for a man in his 50’s is 0.7. With this gentleman, assuming he is otherwise healthy, I would counsel him to consider a prostate biopsy.
Dr. David Brandli
Palmetto Adult and Children's Urology
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