Clinical application of pleural mesothelial cell determination in the diagnosis of pleural effusion

Abstract

Objective To explore the clinical application of pleural mesothelial cell (PMC) determination in the diagnosis of pleural effusion.Methods PMC of 36 patients with malignant pleural effusion (malignant group) and 24 patients with benign pleural effusion (benign group) were counted to determine the clinical value of PMC in benign and malignant pleural effusion.Results In malignant group,there was no case with PMC disappear,1 case (2.78％) with the percentage of PMC between 0 and 1％,1case(2.78％) between 1％ and 5％,34 cases (94.44％) more than 5％.In benign group,there were 11 cases (45.83％) with PMC disappear,8 cases (33.33％) with the percentage of PMC between 0 and 1％,2 cases (8.33％) between 1％ and 5％,3 cases( 12.50％ ) more than 5％.The percentage of PMC between two groups had significant difference (x2 =43.4069,P ＜ 0.01).95％ confidence intervals of PMC in benign and malignant group respectively were 0.28％ -5.10％ and 5.13％ -10.91％,which did not overlap.The percentage of PMC more than 5％ was defined as the diagnosis standard of identifying benign and malignant pleural effusion,the sensitivity of the diagnosis was 94.44％(34/36),the specificity was 87.50％(21/24) and the accuracy was 91.67％(55/60).Conclusions PMC determination is a kind of easy,economical and fast way to diagnose benign and malignant pleural effusion with high sensitivity,specificity and accuracy.Therefore,it has reference value in clinical diagnosis. Key words: Pleural effusion; Mesothelial cell; Diagnosis,differential