Evaluation of tumor markers for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant ascites
Journal Title: Annals of Hepatology - Year 2014, Vol 13, Issue 3
Abstract
Introduction. The diagnosis of malignant ascites is a challenging problem in clinical practice, non-invasive techniques should be developed to improve diagnostic accuracy. The diagnostic performances of tumor markers in malignant ascites remained unsettled. Our aim was to evaluate diagnostic performance of tumor markers in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant ascites. Material and methods. A total of 437 patients were enrolled, and the relevant parameters of the patients were analyzed for the differentiation of benign ascites from malignant ascites. Results. At the predetermined cutoff values of tumor makers, tumor markers in ascitic fluid showed better diagnostic performance than those in serum. Combined use of tumor markers and the cytology increased the diagnostic yield of the latter by 37%. In cytologically negative malignant ascites, tumor markers provided assistance in differentiating malignant ascites from benign ascites, and the combination of ascitic tumor markers yielded 86% sensitivity, 97% specificity. Conclusion. Use of a panel of tumor markers exhibited excellent diagnostic performance in diagnosing malignant ascites, which indicated the detection of tumor markers may represent a beneficial adjunct to cytology, thus guiding the selection of patients who might benefit from further invasive procedures.
Authors and Affiliations
Liu Fang , Kong Xinjuan , Dou Qian , Ye Jin , Xu Dong , Shang Haitao , Song Yuhu
Liver transplantation in the critically ill: donation after cardiac death compared to donation after brain death grafts
Patients with end stage liver disease may become critically ill prior to LT requiring admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). The high acuity patients may be thought too ill to transplant; however, often LT is the o...
Clinical approach to the patient with chronic hepatitis C infection and normal aminotransferases
Approximately 30% of patients with chronic HCV infection have persistently normal alanine aminotransferase levels (PNALT). Most of these patients have minimal or mild inflammation and absent or minimal fibrosis, although...
Smoking as a risk factor for autoimmune liver disease: what we can learn from primary biliary cirrhosis
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a cholestatic liver disease characterised by the immune-mediated destruction of biliary epithelial cells in small intrahepatic bile ducts. The disease is characterised by circulating an...
Non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis with transient elastography (FibroScan®): applying the cut-offs of M probe to XL probe
Background and rationale for the study. Limited studies have aimed to define the cut-offs of XL probe (XL cut-offs) for different stages of liver fibrosis, whereas those of M probe (M cut-offs) may not be applicable to X...
Liver transplantation: A new risk factor for intestinal intussusceptions
Background. The epidemiology and clinical characteristics of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in South America are not well known. Brazil is a largest country in this part of the world and the present study aimed...