Abstract
Infectious pleural effusions can be divided in complicated and non-complicated effusion due to the necessity of using a chest tube for their resolution. LL-37 and beta-defensin-2 are vitamin D activated molecules that act as antimicrobial peptides. In previous reported studies our group demostrated that serum and pleural fluid levels of LL-37 are higher, and serum levels of beta-defensin-2 are lower in infectious complicated pleural effusions.The aim of this study was to analyse the utility of this molecules in the differentiation of complicated and non-complicated effusions using ROC curve analysis. 51 patients with infectious pleural effusion were recluited from patients admitted in our respiratory ward between September 2010 and August 2012. Beta-defensin-2 and LL37 were meassured both in serum and pleural fluid of all patients. This study was approved by our ethics commitee Medcalc software was used to perform ROC curve analysis. Serum LL-37 had an AUC of 0,708, pleural fluid LL-37 had an AUC of 0,731, Serum beta-defensin-2 had an AUC of 0,731, AUC of pH and glucose in pleural fluid were both higher than 0,9. Diagnostic Utility of this molecules is moderate for the differenciation between complicated and non-complicated effusions this utility is lower than other determinations such as pleural fluid pH and glucose used in clinical practise.
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