Pulmonary therapy
Sequential Pleural Fluid and Serum Biomarker Measurements in Patients Undergoing Medical Thoracoscopy for Persistently Undiagnosed Pleural Effusion: A Pilot Study from a TB-Endemic Tertiary Centre
By Singh G, Rattu RBC, Rachmadi L and 11 others.
Abstract
Introduction
Pleural effusion remains diagnostically challenging when standard thoracentesis does not establish an aetiology. This pilot analysis described sequential biomarker measurements in patients proceeding to medical thoracoscopy and explored their associations and discrimination across final diagnostic classifications.
Methods
Prospectively collected data from a single-centre tertiary referral cohort were analysed. Pleural-fluid adenosine deaminase (ADA) and serum complement components 3 and 4 (C3 and C4) were obtained on day 1, whereas pleural-fluid cancer antigen 125 (CA125) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were obtained at the day 7/thoracoscopy evaluation. Final classifications were based on a composite reference standard integrating thoracoscopy, histopathology, microbiology, cytology, imaging, and clinical follow-up. Analyses were exploratory.