Open AccessSTUDY OF PLEURAL FLUID TO SERUM CHOLINESTERASE RATIO TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN TRANSUDATE AND EXUDATE AND ITS CORRELATION WITH LIGHT'S CRITERIA
Author(s) -
Manohar Mr,
Deepti Shetty,
Vikram Vm
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
indian journal of applied research
Language(s) - English
DOI - 10.36106/ijar/2810961
Subject(s) - transudate , pleural effusion , medicine , exudate , inclusion and exclusion criteria , effusion , significant difference , gastroenterology , pleural fluid , pathology , surgery , alternative medicine
Background: Pleural effusion is a common clinical condition faced in everyday practice. The first step in the management of pleural effusion is its differentiation into transudates and exudates. Light’s criteria is the most widely used parameter to differentiate pleural effusions but studies have shown that Light’s criteria misclassifies a significant amount of cases. Methods: Study included 125 patients who had pleural effusion who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Duration of the study was 12 months. Results: Accordingly the mean value of this ratio was 0.10 + 0.05 in the transudates group and 0.39 + 0.14 in the exudates group. This difference was found to be statistically significant (p-value < 0.001). This ratio misclassified 5 cases. Among them 2 (3.2%) were transudates that were misdiagnosed as exudates and 3 (4.8%) were exudates that were misdiagnosed as transudates.In this study Light’s criteria misclassified 13 cases in total with a sensitivity of 91.9% and a specificity of 87.3%. Conclusions: Light’s criteria has a good sensitivity and specificity but P/S ChE was the most efficient parameter in differentiating between transudates and exudates in this study.