Diagnostic significance of @entity379 in tuberculous XXXX .

@entity1143 @entity1 @entity859 @entity5 @entity5641 @entity379 @entity378 @entity204 @entity3254
STUDY OBJECTIVES: @entity378 ( @entity378 ), the single most frequent infectious cause of @entity204 worldwide, also is a major cause of @entity1143 , which in @entity378 usually has lymphocytic and exudative characteristics. Differential diagnosis between @entity378 and nontuberculous @entity1143 can be sometimes difficult, representing a critically important clinical problem. METHODS: We studied 46 @entity1 presenting with @entity1143 to the National Sanyo Hospital between April 2000 and January 2001 (34 @entity1 and 12 @entity1 ; mean age, 64 years). Ten @entity1 (22%) had @entity3254 , 19 @entity1 (41%) had malignant @entity5641 , and 17 @entity1 (37%) had @entity1143 due to an etiology other than @entity378 or @entity5 . Pleural fluid concentrations of four suggested markers were measured using commercially available kits. RESULTS: The pleural fluid levels (mean +/- SE) of @entity859 deaminase (83.3 +/- 18.2 U/L vs 25.8 +/- 20.4 U/L, p < 0.0001), @entity379 (137 +/- 230 IU/mL vs 0.41 +/- 0.05 IU/mL, p < 0.0001), immunosuppressive acidic protein (741 +/- 213 micro g/mL vs 445 +/- 180 micro g/mL, p < 0.001) and soluble interleukin 2 receptor (7,618 +/- 3,662 U/mL vs 2,222 +/- 1,027 U/mL, p < 0.0001) were significantly higher for @entity5641 than for other causes of effusion. Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that pleural fluid content INF-gamma was the best indicator of @entity3254 among four relevant biological markers. CONCLUSIONS: INF-gamma in pleural fluid is the most sensitive and specific among four biological markers for @entity5641 . Thus, our results suggest that determination of INF-gamma at the onset of @entity1143 is informative for the diagnosis of @entity5641 . Further studies including larger numbers of @entity1 are needed to verify this result.
