[Clinical significance of serum CA125 in patients with tuberculous pleurisy]

We measured CA125 levels of the sera and pleural effusions in both patients with tuberculous pleurisy (TB) and with benign non-tuberculous pleurisy (non-TB). In all the TB patients, serum CA125 levels were increased (78 to 370 U/ml, mean +/- SD = 167.3 +/- 96.8 U/ml, n = 8), and were significantly higher than those in non-TB patients (167.3 +/- 96.8 U/ml v.s. 36.9 +/- 18.4 U/ml, p less than 0.01). Neoplastic diseases or gynecological disorders were not found in these patients. On the other hand, either CA125 or LDH levels of pleural effusions were not significantly different between these two groups. Although adenosine deaminase (ADA) levels in pleural effusions were also significantly higher in the TB patients (p less than 0.05), there were no correlation between serum CA125 and ADA levels in pleural effusions. Serial measurement of serum CA125 levels in the TB patients revealed that serum CA125 levels were markedly decreased one to two months after anti-tuberculous therapy (172.6 +/- 103.3 U/ml to 23.3 +/- 9.9 U/ml, p less than 0.01). It is suggested that the measurement of serum CA125 in patients with tuberculous pleurisy is useful as an indicator of disease activity.