title: [PSA: the difficult position of general practitioners between patients and urologists].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the reasons for ordering PSA assay and delayed referral to an urologist following detection of elevated PSA in general practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study of 200 patients referred to the department by general practitioners for elevated PSA from September 2000 to April 2001.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median age was 67 years (range: 52 to 87). The median PSA was 7.9 ng/ml (range: 4.1 to 897). Patients were referred after 1 to 5 PSA assays (mean: 1.6) with a median interval after discovery of elevated PSA of 1.7 months. The referral time was greater than 6 months for 52 patients (26%) and 31 patients (15.6%) were referred after more than two PSA assays were found to be elevated. PSA assay was ordered in the absence of symptoms or abnormal digital rectal examination in 43% of patients over the age of 70 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prostate cancer screening is regularly performed in general practice. The information given to general practitioners, faced with a well informed population, appears to be insufficiently clear, as PSA assay is sometimes incorrectly ordered or interpreted.
authors.affiliation: Service d'Urologie, CHU Pontchaillou, rue Henri Le Guilloux, 35033 Rennes, France. vindendeausebas@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vincendeau
authors.forename: Maroun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abi Moussa
authors.forename: Andréa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manunta
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Patard
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guillé
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lobel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010821:Physicians, Family; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014572:Urology
chemical_list: D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen