[Tuberculous pleural effusion and pleural effusion secondary to non-specific bacterial infection: biochemical differential diagnosis (author's transl)].

The authors study 14 different analytical parameters in the pleural fluid in order to recognize differential biological criteria, helping to establish an etiologic diagnosis in patients with suggestive clinical symptoms and biological data of an infectious process. In a group of 38 patients with bacterial exudative pleural effusion (22 of tuberculous origin and 16 secondary to non-specific bacterial infection), the following parameters were analyzed: total proteins, acid glucoprotein, X1, antytripsin, CDH, acid phosphatase, amylase, cholinest, copper, iron, pCO2, pO2 pH, glucose, and cholesterol. The results of amylase, copper, pCO2, pO2 and pH determinations in the pleural fluid show statistical significant differences between the tuberculous cases and the patients with non-specific infections. Lastly, the authors mention the minimal biological criteria necessary to confirm the tuberculous or non-specific bacterial etiology of a pleural fluid, stressing the value of the levels of cholinesterase, copper, pO2 and pH as differential data.