Tuberc Respir Dis.  1990 Dec;37(4):407-413. 10.4046/trd.1990.37.4.407.

Soluble Interleukin-2 Receptor (sIL-2R) Levels in Patients with Tuberculous and Malignant Pleural effusion

• KMID: 2528471
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1990.37.4.407

Abstract

Soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) has been known as a sensitive marker of T.lymphocyte activation. Because T -cell activation is important in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis, especially in the pleural effusion, a high level of sIL-2R is expected in the serum and pleural fluid of the patients with tuberculosis. Sometimes the differential diagnosis between tuberculous pleurisy and malignant pleural effusion is sometimes very difficult clinically, so to look at the diagnostic value of sIL-2R in the differentiation of these two diseases, we measured the sIL-2R level of the sera and pleural fluids of 33 patients with pathologically and/ or bacteriologically proven tuberculous pleurisy and 17 patients with malignant effusion diagnosed by pleural biopsy and/or pleural fluid cytology. We found that: 1) Even though the serum level of sIL.2R of the patients with tuberculous pleurisy: 1325± 490 U/ ml was significantly higher than the level of malignant pleural effusion:852± 381 U/ ml (P<0.05), there was a wide range of overlapping between the two groups. 2) In the pleural fluid, the sIL-2R level of tuberculous pleurisy: 6963 ± 2199 U/ ml was much higher than that of malignant effusion: 1684± 684 U/ml (P < 0.005), and no overlapping of the individual values between the two groups was noted. 3) About two or three months after the initiation of antituberculous medication, the serum sIL-2R level of the tuberculous pleural effusion returned to the normal range. We conclud that the level of sIL-2R in the pleural fluid is useful in the differential diagnosis between the two diseases.