What is a Normal PSA

PSA or prostate specific antigen is being manufactured by the prostate gland. A little
quantity of it is found in blood; however it is typically found in semen. The fixed value of
it has long been the average of care in determining whether your PSA increase is quite
large. Previously, the number 4 has been considered to be the limit so as your level is
considered to be normal but this may not always be applicable to men.

Several aspects are in need of certain consideration when you interpret a PSA value.
These factors include age adjustment of the it, density, percent free PSA and velocity.The
recent data modified how urologists take a look and interpret PSA values with regards
to what they defined as a normal PSA. Now, the acknowledged rate for an age-adjusted
PSA considering men with the age below 50 is 2.4 ng per ml but for those within their
70's should be 6.5 ng per ml.

There are also some other restrictions that have been definite for varying age.
However, there is no general agreement regarding the precision of the age-adjusted
values.

PSA density is determined to be PSA over the prostate volume. For instance
distinguishing two patients with same prominent PSA but varying prostate volumes, the
patient with the smaller prostate is probably the one to develop prostate cancer. That
is, the elevated the density is the more possible it is that the patient develops prostate
cancer.

The PSA velocity is determined to be the rate that the PSA is changing over a certain
time period. A patient who has less than 2 as a PSA, a velocity of more than 0.35 ng per
ml in a year should be of concern. However, patients that has PSA between 4 and 10 have
a reason to be worried when the PSA velocity is more than 0.75 ng per ml. For instance,
considering a rise of PSA from 1 to 1.5 is a reason for you to be concerned but a rise of 5
to 5.5 is probably not harmful.

The percent free PSA (PSA-f) is defined to be the ratio of "free PSA" against "bound
PSA" within the totality of PSA in the sample of the blood. The free PSA travels in the
bloodstream that is not linked to any protein carrier. That is, if the percentage of free PSA
is higher then the risk of cancer will be lower.