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Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objectives The aim of this study was to assess the value of the pleural fluid soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) in the diagnosis of the etiology of pleural effusion. Background The accurate diagnosis of pleural effusion remains a challenging problem even after thoracocentesis and closed pleural biopsy. TREM-1 is a recently described molecule that plays an important role in myeloid cell-activated inflammatory responses. Patients and methods We measured sTREM-1 levels from 20 patients with transudative effusion, 20 patients with malignant effusion, 20 patients with tuberculous effusion, and 20 patients with parapneumonic effusion using a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. Result sTREM-1 levels were significantly higher in parapneumonic effusion (45.50 ± 13.21 ng/l) than tuberculous effusion (34.90 ± 10.51 ng/l) and in malignant effusion (15.37 ± 5.01 ng/l) than transudative effusion (6.75 ± 3.35 ng/l). Conclusion Our study suggests that sTREM-1 can differentiate between infectious effusions (parapneumonic and tuberculous) and noninfectious effusions (malignant and transudative effusions).

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