Diagnostic value of Prostate-specific antigen in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Abstract

PCOS appears to be a heterogeneous disorder in which ovarian, and possibly adrenal androgen excess, is present along with varying degrees of gonadotropic and metabolic abnormalities.

According to the diagnostic criteria accepted by Rotterdam ESHRE/ASRM sponsored PCOS consensus workshop group (2004), the patients must present either clinical or biochemical findings subsequent to androgen excess to be considered as suffering from PCOS. In spite of additional metabolic criteria involving insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia, androgen excess is the immediate culprit that determines the endocrine features of PCOS such as hirsutism, acne, androgenic alopecia and irregular menses.

PSA, a 33 kDa serine protease with a chymotrypsin like enzymatic activity has been used as a highly specific marker of normal and cancerous prostatic tissue and is secreted into the seminal plasma. Although it is considered to be a highly specific and worthy tumor marker regarding the diagnosis and management of prostate carcinoma, recently a growing body of information points out the production of PSA from multiple female tissues and fluids such as breast, ovary, lungs, liver, kidneys, adrenal tumors and normal endometrium.

Detection of this marker by using enzyme immunoassay, lead to important clinical implications.