| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Guest Access | Sign In via User Name/Password
|
|
|
|||||||
Guest Access | Sign In via User Name/Password |
|||||||||
1 From the Departments of Internal Medicine University Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain
2 From the Department of Biochemistry, University Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain
Study objective: To determine the usefulness of modifying Light's criteria for the separation of pleural transudates from exudates.
Design: Retrospective review of patients who underwent a diagnostic thoracentesis during a 2-year period.
Setting: Community teaching hospital in Lleida, Spain.
Patients and methods: Clinical records and pleural fluid characteristics of 230 consecutive patients with pleural effusion underwent a detailed review. Thirty-five of these patients were excluded from the analysis. As suggested recently by Romero et al, different cutoff levels for the criteria of Light et al were applied and their accuracies were calculated.
Results: Thirty-nine (20%) pleural effusions were transudates and 156 (80%) were exudates. The accuracy of the criteria of Light et al for identifying exudates was 94.7% (confidence interval, 91.6 to 97.9) in comparison to our own modified criteria (93.1%; confidence interval, 89.5 to 96.7) and the criteria suggested by Romero et al (92.6%; confidence interval, 88.9 to 96.3). These differences were not statistically significant.
Conclusion: Changing the classic Light's criteria with different cutoff points offers no advantages for discriminating between transudative and exudative pleural effusions.
Key Words: exudates • pleural effusion • thoracentesis • transudates
Submitted on September 12, 1995
Accepted on December 6, 2007
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  A. Gegenhuber, T. Mueller, B. Dieplinger, K. Lenz, W. Poelz, and M. Haltmayers Plasma B-Type Natriuretic Peptide in Patients With Pleural Effusions: Preliminary Observations Chest, August 1, 2005; 128(2): 1003 - 1009. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. M. Porcel, M. Vives, A. Esquerda, A. Salud, B. Perez, and F. Rodriguez-Panadero Use of a Panel of Tumor Markers (Carcinoembryonic Antigen, Cancer Antigen 125, Carbohydrate Antigen 15-3, and Cytokeratin 19 Fragments) in Pleural Fluid for the Differential Diagnosis of Benign and Malignant Effusions Chest, December 1, 2004; 126(6): 1757 - 1763. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. E. Heffner, K. Highland, and L. K. Brown A Meta-analysis Derivation of Continuous Likelihood Ratios for Diagnosing Pleural Fluid Exudates Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., June 15, 2003; 167(12): 1591 - 1599. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. H.M. Chan, K. M. Chow, A. T.C. Chan, C. B. Leung, L. Y.S. Chan, K. C.K. Chow, C. W. Lam, and Y.M. D. Lo Quantitative Analysis of Pleural Fluid Cell-free DNA as a Tool for the Classification of Pleural Effusions Clin. Chem., May 1, 2003; 49(5): 740 - 745. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Z. G. Fridlender, I. Gotsman, and R. W. Light Pleural Effusion N. Engl. J. Med., October 17, 2002; 347(16): 1286 - 1287. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 N S Paramothayan and J Barron New criteria for the differentiation between transudates and exudates J. Clin. Pathol., January 1, 2002; 55(1): 69 - 71. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. M. Porcel, M. Vives, A. Esquerda, M. C. Rivas, C.-W. Lam, and M.-L. Chen Pleural Protein Capillary Electrophoresis for the Separation of Transudates and Exudates Drs. Lam and Chen respond: Clin. Chem., May 1, 2001; 47(5): 975 - 976. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Y. Moltyaner, M. S. Miletin, and R. F. Grossman Transudative Pleural Effusions : False Reassurance Against Malignancy Chest, September 1, 2000; 118(3): 885 - 885. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. M. Porcel, M. Vives, and J. E. Heffner Classic, Abbreviated, and Modified Light’s Criteria : The End of the Story? Chest, December 1, 1999; 116(6): 1833 - 1836. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
