Clinical significance of pleural effusion CA125 inspection

To explore the clinical significance of pleural effusion CA125 inspection,500 patients with pleural effusion were recruited.All patients underwent paracentesis for collect the pleural effusion at beginning of their admission,and treated for 2 or 3 weeks before the second paracentesis.The pleural effusion collected at different times was detected for CA125 level.We found that pleural effusion and serum levels of the CA125 in patients with inflammatory pleural effusion showed no significant increase compared with normal control.For the patient with tuberculous and malignant pleural effusion,the CA125 level increased significantly compared with normal(P 0.05),furthermore,the CA125 level in effusion was slightly higher that in serum.After treatment,the CA125 level in tuberculous effusion decreased(P 0.01),but that in malignant effusion did not changed(P 0.05).The results indicate that Ca125 can be used in diagnosis and treatment of patients with tuberculous pleural effusion.