Malignant and tuberculous pleural effusions: immunophenotypic cellular characterization

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Tuberculosis and cancer are the main causes of pleural effusion. Pleural involvement is associated with migration of immune cells to the pleural cavity. We sought to characterize the immunophenotype of leukocytes in the pleural effusion and peripheral blood of patients with tuberculosis or malignancy. METHODS: Thirty patients with tuberculosis (14) or malignancy (16) were studied. A control group included 20 healthy blood donors. RESULTS: Malignant phycoerythrin pleural effusions showed higher percentages of CD3, CD4, CD3CD45RO, and CD20CD25 lymphocytes and lower percentages of CD3CD25 and CD20HLA-DR when compared to PB lymphocytes. Compared to PB, tuberculous effusions had a higher percentage of lymphocytes that co-expressed CD3, CD4, CD3CD45RO, CD3TCRáâ, CD3CD28, and CD20 and a lower percentage of CD14, CD8 and CD3TCRãä-positive lymphocytes. Malignant effusions presented higher expression of CD14 whereas tuberculous effusions had higher expression of CD3 and CD3CD95L. Peripheral blood cells from tuberculosis patients showed higher expression of CD14, CD20CD25 and CD3CD95L. Compared with the control cells, tuberculosis and cancer peripheral blood cells presented a lower percentage of CD3CD4 and CD3CD28-positive cells as well as a higher percentage of CD3CD8, CD3CD25 and CD3CD80-positive cells. CONCLUSIONS: Tuberculous and malignant peripheral blood is enriched with lymphocytes with a helper/inducer T cell phenotype, which are mainly of memory cells. CD14-positive cells were more frequently found in malignant effusions, while CD3-positive cells expressing Fas ligand were more frequently found in tuberculous effusions.

Avaliação dos valores sérico e pleural dos marcadores tumorais CEA, CYFRA21-1 e CA 15-3 em portadores de derrame pleural / Evaluation of serum and pleural levels of the tumor markers CEA, CYFRA21-1 and CA 15-3 in patients with pleural effusion

OBJETIVO: Dosar os marcadores tumorais antígeno carcinoembrionário (CEA), fragmento da citoqueratina 19 (CYFRA21-1) e antígeno glicosídico associado a tumor 15-3 (CA 15-3) em sangue e líquido pleural de portadores de derrames pleurais benignos e malignos, avaliando a sensibilidade de cada um deles nesses fluidos. MÉTODOS: Avaliamos prospectivamente 85 pacientes com derrame pleural. O estudo do líquido pleural obedeceu a critérios determinados pela literatura. A dosagem dos marcadores foi realizada por eletroquimioluminescência. A sensibilidade foi determinada sob a condição de que a especificidade fosse > 90 por cento. RESULTADOS: Foram diagnosticados 36 casos malignos (42,4 por cento), 30 benignos (35,3 por cento); em 19 pacientes (22,3 por cento), o diagnóstico foi inconclusivo. Nos casos malignos, os valores de CEA e CYFRA21-1 foram maiores no líquido pleural do que no sangue, fato não observado para o CA 15-3. Nos casos benignos, os valores do CYFRA21-1 foram maiores no líquido pleural do que no soro, enquanto que para o CEA e o CA 15-3, ocorreu o oposto. Todos os marcadores apresentaram diferença significativa entre os casos malignos e benignos, em líquido pleural e soro. Foi encontrada sensibilidade para CEA, CYFRA21-1 e CA 15-3 no líquido pleural de 69,4 por cento, 69,4 por cento e 66,7 por cento, respectivamente e quando associados, foi 80,6 por cento. No soro, a sensibilidade foi 57,1, 71,4 e 48,6 por cento para CEA, CYFRA21-1 e CA 15-3, respectivamente, e quando associados, foi 77 por cento. CONCLUSÃO: Os resultados sugerem que a utilização desses marcadores pode ser útil na diferenciação entre derrames pleurais malignos e benignos.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the levels of the tumor markers carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1) and carbohydrate antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3) in the blood and pleural fluid of patients with benign or malignant pleural effusion, evaluating the sensitivity of each marker in these fluids. METHODS: We prospectively evaluated 85 patients with pleural effusion. The study of the pleural fluid observed the criteria established in the literature. Levels of the markers were determined using electrochemiluminescence. The sensitivity was determined on the condition that the specificity was > 90 percent. RESULTS: Of the 85 cases, 36 (42.4 percent) were malignant, 30 (35.3 percent) were benign, and the results were inconclusive in 19 (22.3 percent). In the malignant cases, the CEA and CYFRA21-1 levels were higher in the pleural fluid than in the blood, which was not observed for CA 15-3. In the benign cases, the CYFRA21-1 levels were higher in the pleural fluid than in the blood, whereas the opposite was found for CEA and CA 15-3. There were significant differences between malignant and benign cases for all markers, in pleural fluid and blood. In the pleural fluid, the sensitivity of CEA, CYFRA21-1 and CA 15-3 was 69.4, 69.4 and 66.7 percent, respectively, and the combined sensitivity was 80.6 percent. In the blood, the sensitivity was 57.1 percent, 71.4 percent and 48.6 percent for CEA, CYFRA21-1 and CA 15-3, respectively, and the combined sensitivity was 77 percent. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that these markers might be useful in the differentiation between malignant and benign pleural effusion.

value of CEA in the differentiation between malignant and non-malignant effusion

In order to discriminate between benign and malignant effusion, the value of carcinoembryonic antigen has been estimated in the serum and in serous effusion. The present work included 40 patients, 22 with malignant and 18 with benign effusions. The mean CEA level in the malignant group was significantly higher than that in the benign group. Using CEA value of 5 ng/ml as a cut-off value, CEA level in the effusion was found to have a sensitivity of 41% and specificity of 94%. The corresponding values in the serum were 45% and 100% respectively. In the malignant group, the mean CEA value was found to be high in patients having adenocarcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma. On the other hand, the mean CEA level in patients having mesothelioma was low

Plasma and pleural effusion fibronectin in malignant and non-malignant effusion

Thirty patients with pleural effusions; 15 with malignant effusion and 15 with nonmalignant effusion were studied. Liver function tests were normal in both groups of patients. Pleural fluid total white count, lymphocytes and polymorphonuclear cells were significantly higher in nonmalignant than malignant groups, while pleural fluid protein content in malignant group was more often in the range of concentrations found in nonmalignant group. This showed that the rise in protein content of pleural fluid is not specific and can not discriminate malignant form nonmalignant pleural effusion. Fibronectin [FN] and cholesterol contents in malignant pleural effusion were significantly higher than nonmalignant pleural effusion. Also, pleural fluid FN in malignant group was higher than its serum level. No correlation was found between the pleural fluid FN and its serum level in both groups which shows that pleural fluid FN is not only due to simple exudation from plasma, and it may be in part produced locally. No correlation was found between pleural effusion FN and cholesterol and the protein content in both groups of patients. A good positive correlation was found between pleural effusion FN and cholesterol content in malignant group. So, this work showed that the measurement of pleural effusion FN offers a good discrimination and a higher differential diagnostic efficiency for malignant effusion superior to the conventional protein determination