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[Comparison of the diagnostic value of telomerase activity with CEA level in benign and malignant pleural effusions]
1Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou 510080, China.
Objective:
To study the diagnostic value of telomerase activity in differentiating malignant from nonmalignant pleural effusions.
Method:
Sixty-five specimens of pleural effusion were examined for telomerase activity and CEA level by PCR-ELISA and EIA, respectively. According to the final diagnosis achieved, the patients were classified into two groups: group I, 35 nonmalignant pleural effusions, group II, 30 malignant pleural effusions diagnosed by either fluid cytology or pleural biopsy. The results of telomerase activity were compared with CEA levels.
Results:
Two of thirty-five (5.7%) samples of pleural effusions in group I were found to possess weak telomerase activity and 27 of 30 (90%) samples in group II showed positive enzymatic activity. The diagnostic sensitivity is 0.90, specificity is 0.94, and the positive and negative predictive value are 0.93 and 0.92, respectively. The overall accuracy is 0.92. The diagnostic efficiency of CEA as following: sensitivity 0.60, specificity 0.89, positive and negative predictive value are 0.82 and 0.72, respectively, accuracy 0.75.
Conclusion:
The results indicate that the detection of telomerase activity in pleural effusions is more sensitive, more accurate than CEA in differentiating benign from malignant effusions and can be used as an adjunctive measure in the diagnosis of malignant pleural effusions.