2022 Volume 71 Issue 2 Pages 238-244
The pathological conditions of patients with pleural effusion samples are (1) heart failure, (2) neoplasticity, (3) pneumonia, (4) pyothorax, (5) tuberculosis, (6) renal failure, liver cirrhosis, and malnutrition (726 patients), and the criteria for judging these samples are cell count and classification of test items, TP ratio, and LD of light standard. A pH of 7.2 was used for judging the need for drainage adaptation and was compared among patients and examined. As for the cell count, its cut-off value based on the Youden index was 1,000/μL, as determined from the ROC curve analysis of the pathological conditions classified into leaky and exudative. In the future, this cut-off value can be used as a reference cell count to distinguish between leaky and exudative pathologies. Cross tabulation for exudative and leaky pathologies showed that exudative cells had a high specificity of 84.6%. The sensitivity was as high as 78.9% for the TP ratio and 84.8% for LD. The characteristics of sensitivity and specificity would be useful for the judgment of exudative and leaky pathologies and the therapeutic effect of drugs on inflammatory diseases. In the ROC curve with a pH of 7.2 obtained using all pathological conditions, the AUC was 0.919 and the Youden index was 76.5% for neutrophils. The value that neutrophils show 75% was considered to be a test that could be used as a substitute for pH measurement using a blood gas analyzer.
