Efficacy of plasma atherogenic index in predicting malignancy in the presence of Prostate Imaging–Reporting and Data System 3 (PI-RADS 3) prostate lesions

Purpose Plasma atherogenic index (PAI) was shown to be positively correlated with the presence of malignity in patients with suspicious findings for renal cell cancer and colon cancer in reported studies. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether there is an association with the presence of malignity in patients PI-RADS 3 prostate lesions and PAI. Methods This retrospective study reviewed the data of 139 patients who underwent transrectal ultrasonography-guided systematic and cognitive fusion prostate biopsy for PI-RADS 3 lesions in multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging. The patients were divided to two groups as malign ( n = 33) and benign ( n = 106). The association between age, body mass index, comorbidities, smoking status, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), PSA density, free/total PSA, prostate weight, lesion diameter, triglyceride value, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol value, PAI value data and presence of malignity were investigated by descriptive, multivariate and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results PSA, PSAD, lesion diameter and PAI value were statistically significantly higher in the malignant group compared to the benign group, and the free/total PSA ratio was lower. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, PSA > 9.9 ng/ml, free/total PSA 13.5 mm and PAI > 0.13 were identified as independent risk factors for presence of prostate malignancy. Conclusion PAI was found to be a predictive parameter for prostate cancer in PI-RADS 3 prostate lesions. Our study can open new thoughts about PAI as metric to assess the prostate cancer risk.