Diagnostic value of soluble B7-H4 in malignant pleural effusion].

Chun-hua Xu, Li-ke Yu

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nanjing Chest Hospital, Nanjing, China. xuchunhua74@163.com

Zhonghua yi xue za zhi 2012 Jan 10

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To explore the diagnostic value of soluble B7-H4 (sB7-H4) in tuberculous pleural effusion and malignant pleural effusion. A total of 98 patients of pleural effusion treated in Nanjing Chest Hospital from January 2007 to December 2009 were enrolled. The etiologies were tuberculous (n = 48) and malignant (n = 50). The levels of sB7-H4 in pleural effusion were detected by sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The rational clinical diagnostic value was established by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The level of sB7-H4 in malignant pleural effusion was significant higher than that in tuberculous effusion ((65.7 ± 5.8) vs (28.6 ± 8.7) µg/L, P < 0.05). The cut-off value of sB7-H4 was 36.5 µg/L for malignant pleural effusion. And the rates of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 92.0%, 83.3% and 87.8% respectively. The level of sB7-H4 may be used as a valuable parameter in the differentiation of tuberculous from malignant effusion.