Pediatr Allergy Respir Dis.  2002 Jun;12(2):146-153.

The Utility of Pleural Adenosine Deaminase for Diagnosis of Differentiating Tuberculous Pleural Effusion in Children

• Kwon GH
• Kim JS
• Jung JS
• Lim JH
• Lee GW

Abstract

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the value of pleural adenosine deaminase (ADA) in differentiating tuberculous pleural effusion from non tuberculous pleural effusion of children.
METHODS
We measured pleural ADA activity in patients with pleural effusion whose age were from seven months to seventeen years from January 1995 to October 2001. By some criteria the patients were grouped to tuberculous pleural effusion, bacterial effusion, mycoplasma effusion, malignant effusion, and other effusion.
RESULTS
The mean pleural ADA activity in tuberculous pleural effusion was 86.2+/-27.3 U/L. Pleural ADA activities in bacterial effusion, mycoplasma effusion, malignant effusion, other effusion were 32.6+/-20.1, 22.1+/-15.4, 23.1+/-10.9, 36.7+/-28.4 U/L, respectively. Pleural ADA activity in tuberculous pleural effusion was significantly higher than in any other group(P<0.001). At a level of 50 U/L, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (ppv), and and negative predictive value(npv) for the identification of tuberculous pleural effusion from nontuberculous pleural effusion were calculated at 93.8%, 84.8%, 81.1%, 95.1%, respectively.
CONCLUSION
Pleural ADA is a useful test in the diagnosis of tuberculous pleural effusion of children from nontuberculous pleural effusion.

Keyword

ADA; Tuberculous pleural effusion; Children

MeSH Terms

Adenosine Deaminase*
Adenosine*
Child*
Diagnosis*
Humans
Mycoplasma
Pleural Effusion*
Sensitivity and Specificity
Adenosine
Adenosine Deaminase