To investigate the relationship between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate volume in a histologically defined subset of Korean men confirmed to have benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) only from multicore biopsy of prostate.

A total of 707 Korean men with a PSA level of 10 ng/mL or lower who were shown to have stromoglandular hyperplasia only from transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided multicore biopsy of prostate were included in the study. We analyzed PSA and total prostate volume (TV) measured through TRUS by stratified age cohorts. We used Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and linear regression model to describe the relationship between variables.

Serum PSA level significantly correlated with TV in all stratified age cohorts, with r ranging from 0.29 to 0.47 (all P <0.001). Meanwhile, the degree of correlation appeared to increase with age. The slope of linear regression showing an association of PSA and TV was 3.68. The PSA increase per unit prostate volume decreased with the advancing cohort of age when we excluded subjects 70 years or older.

Although PSA was significantly correlated with TV, the exact nature of the relationship between PSA and TV in Korean men with biopsy-proven BPH may be different from that in other races. Further basic research on the pathophysiology of BPH is needed to explain such a racial difference.