[Clinical analysis of ascitic fluid in patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma].

To investigate the clinical significance of ascitic fluid in patients with a malignancy, an abdominal paracentesis to evaluate the ascitic fluid was performed in 10 patients with a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and in 7 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC). The AFP levels in the ascitic fluid and in the serum of the HCC patients was found be significantly higher than that of the LC patients. In addition, the ratio of albumin/total protein in ascitic fluid was also higher in the HCC patients. However, no significant findings were uncovered with regard to the concentration of lipid in ascitic fluid, in either type of patient although 2 HCC patients were found to have a very high concentration of total cholesterol. The cytological findings provided no reliable marker because of significant number of false negatives in the HCC patients. Also, there was no significant difference between the fibronectin levels in the ascitic fluid of either type of patients. This finding differs from previous studies, and suggests that the fibronectin levels in the ascitic fluid may not be a useful marker in determining a malignancy.