ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the expression of interleukin-18 in tuberculous pleurisy and its clinical significance by measuring the tuberculous pleurisy pleural effusion in patients with interleukin-18 levels.Methods The clinical data of 20 patients with primary diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy and 20 patients with non-tuberculous pleurisy (including pneumonia,purulence,etc.) from December 2016 to June 2017 were retrospectively analyzed in the Department of Thoracic Surgery,Dongfang Hospital of Lianyungang City.Immunoassay was used to determine the level of interleukin-18 in pleural effusion of patients with tuberculous pleurisy and non-tuberculous pleurisy and adenosine deaminase by enzymatic method.Interleukin-18 levels and adenosine deaminase levels were compared between the two groups.Measurement data were expressed as ((x) ± s).The difference between the two groups using t test.Results The level of pleural effusion interleukin-18 in patients at admission was (520.5 ± 42.6) pg/ml and that in non-tuberculous pleurisy patients was (174.5 ± 12.7) pg/ml (P ＜ 0.05).Tuberculous pleurisy decreased pleural effusion interleukin-18 levels to (425.5 ± 27.5) pg/ml,(368.4 ± 21.7) pg/ml,(208.9 ± 15.9) pg/ml.Interleukin-18 in pleural effusion was significantly lower than that at admission (P ＜ 0.05) after 7 days of treatment.Conclusion Interleukin-18 production may be the cause of tuberculous pleurisy,may be used as an early diagnosis of inflammatory pleural effusion and observe the therapeutic effect of the immune indicators.