Clinical analysis on the 108 cases of pleural effusion

Objective To investigate the cause and diagnosis of pleural effusion.Methods The clinical data of the 108 cases with pleural effusion were analyzed retrospectively.Results There were 58(53.70%) patients with benign pleural effusion and 40(37.04%)patients with malignant pleural effusion in a total of 108 patients.The main cause of benign pleural effusion was tuberculosis,among all 34 patients(31.48%).Serum CEA,pleural fluid levels of CEA,pleural fluid CEA/serum CEA in the patients with malignant pleural effusion were significantly higher than those in the patients with benign pleural effusion.The sensitivity and specificity of ADA in diagnosis of tuberculous pleural effusion were 90.91% and 85.00%,respectively.The area under the ROC was 0.888.Conclusion The main causes of pleural effusion are tumor and tuberculosis.The serum CEA,pleural fluid levels of CEA,pleural fluid CEA/serum CEA are the reliable for detecting benign and malignant pleural effusion.Pleural fluid level of ADA has very important value in clinical diagnosis of tuberculous pleural effusion.