Combined detection of pleural biopsy under medical thoracoscopy and serum tumor markers in diagnosis of pleural effusion with unknown reason / 中国内镜杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To discuss combined detection of pleural biopsy under medical thoracoscopy and pulmonary serum tumor markers in diagnosis of pleural effusion with unknown reason.Methods 76 patients with pleural effusion caused by unknown reason from January 2014 to March 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Pleural biopsy was conducted under medical thoracoscopy and sent for pathological examination, and 10 ml venous blood was collected from these patients upon admission for testing serum tumor markers (CEA, SCC-AG, ProGRP and CYFRA21-1).Results Among the 76 patients, there were 32 cases with benign lesions (14 with pulmonary tuberculosis, 9 with inlfammatory lesions, 6 with granulomatous inlfammation, 2 with empyema and 1 with hamartoma) and 44 cases with malignant lesions (18 with adenocarcinoma, 13 with squamous carcinoma, 6 with small cell lung cancer, 3 with adeno-squamous carcinoma, 2 with mesothelioma, 1 with large cell carcinoma and 1 with thymoma). The detection of serum tumor markers showed statistically significant differences in the levels of CEA, SCC-AG, ProGRP and CYFRA21-1 in serum between the malignant pleural effusion group and benign pleural effusion group (P = 0.021,P = 0.006,P = 0.003 andP = 0.010). The levels of various serum tumor markers in the malignant pleural effusion group were obviously higher than those in the benign pleural effusion group. According to the pathological results, patients with pleural effusions not caused by lung cancer (2 with mesothelioma and 1 with thymoma) were eliminated from 44 patients with malignant pleural effusions. The rest 41 patients with pleural effusions caused by lung cancer were divided into non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer according to the pathological types. The results showed that there were statistically signiifcant differences in the levels of CEA, ProGRP and CYFRA21-1 between non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer (P = 0.036,P = 0.005 andP = 0.008), while there was no statistically signiifcant difference in the level of SCC-AG (P = 0.811).Conclusions Due to high detection rate and high accuracy in detecting pleural effusions caused by unknown reason, medical thoracoscopy is of great signiifcance, especially for the diagnosis of malignant pleural effusions of pleural metastases. However, serum indicators may provide important reference values for us before the pathological results are available. Thus, it is an important means of diagnosing malignant pleural effusions caused by lung cancer and should be promoted in clinic.