Correlation of Peripheral Vein Tumour Marker Levels, Internal Iliac Vein Tumour Marker Levels and Radical Prostatectomy Specimens in Patients with Prostate Cancer and Borderline High Prostate-Specific Antigen: A Pilot Study

PURPOSE

To correlate prostate-specific antigen (PSA), free to total PSA percentage (fPSA%) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) levels from peripheral and pelvic venous samples with prostatectomy specimens in patients with prostate adenocarcinoma and borderline elevation of PSA.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this prospective institutional review board approved study, 7 patients with biopsy proven prostate cancer had a venous sampling procedure prior to prostatectomy (mean 3.2 days, range 1-7). Venous samples were taken from a peripheral vein (PVS), the right internal iliac vein, a deep right internal iliac vein branch, left internal iliac vein and a deep left internal iliac vein branch. Venous sampling results were compared to tumour volume, laterality, stage and grade in prostatectomy surgical specimens.

RESULTS

Mean PVS PSA was 4.29, range 2.3-6 ng/ml. PSA and PAP values in PVS did not differ significantly from internal iliac or deep internal iliac vein samples (p > 0.05). fPSA% was significantly higher in internal iliac (p = 0.004) and deep internal iliac (p = 0.003) vein samples compared to PVS. One of 7 patients had unilateral tumour only. This patient, with left-sided tumour, had a fPSA% of 6, 6, 6, 14 and 12 in his peripheral, right internal iliac, deep right internal iliac branch, left internal iliac and deep left internal iliac branch samples respectively. There were no adverse events.

CONCLUSION

fPSA%, unlike total PSA or PAP, is significantly higher in pelvic vein compared to peripheral vein samples when prostate cancer is present. Larger studies including patients with higher PSA values are warranted to further investigate this counterintuitive finding.

A Comparison of Traditional and Novel Definitions (RIFLE, AKIN, and KDIGO) of Acute Kidney Injury for the Prediction of Outcomes in Acute Decompensated Heart Failure

AIMS

To determine if newer criteria for diagnosing and staging acute kidney injury (AKI) during heart failure (HF) admission are more predictive of clinical outcomes at 30 days and 1 year than the traditional worsening renal function (WRF) definition.

METHODS

We analyzed prospectively collected clinical data on 637 HF admissions with 30-day and 1-year follow-up. The incidence, stages, and outcomes of AKI were determined using the following four definitions: KDIGO, RIFLE, AKIN, and WRF (serum creatinine rise ≥0.3 mg/dl). Receiver operating curves were used to compare the predictive ability of each AKI definition for the occurrence of adverse outcomes (death, rehospitalization, dialysis).

RESULTS

AKI by any definition occurred in 38.3% (244/637) of cases and was associated with an increased incidence of 30-day (32.3 vs. 6.9%, χ(2) = 70.1; p < 0.001) and 1-year adverse outcomes (67.5 vs. 31.0%, χ(2) = 81.4; p < 0.001). Most importantly, there was a stepwise increase in primary outcome with increasing stages of AKI severity using RIFLE, KDIGO, or AKIN (p < 0.001). In direct comparison, there were only small differences in predictive abilities between RIFLE and KDIGO and WRF concerning clinical outcomes at 30 days (AUC 0.76 and 0.74 vs. 0.72, χ(2) = 5.6; p = 0.02) as well as for KDIGO and WRF at 1 year (AUC 0.67 vs. 0.65, χ(2) = 4.8; p = 0.03).

CONCLUSION

During admission for HF, the benefits of using newer AKI classification systems (RIFLE, AKIN, KDIGO) lie with the ability to identify those patients with more severe degrees of AKI who will go on to experience adverse events at 30 days and 1 year. The differences in terms of predictive abilities were only marginal.