Significance of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Pleural Effusion / 대한흉부외과학회지

ABSTRACT

Background: None of the currently available strategies for diagnosis and management of the pleural effusion are ideal. We tried to evaluate the validity of VEGF in differential diagnosis of the pleural effusion and find out if VEGF were correlated with the established markers. Material and Method: 35 patients with pleural effusion were divided into malignant effusion (n=10), benign effusion (n=5), infectious effusion (n=10), and pneumothorax (n=10), respectively. The pleural fluids from each group were examined for differential cell count, chemistry (glucose, protein, LDH, and ADA), and VEGF. Result: Glucose level was lower in infectious effusion compared with benign effusion (60.5+/-36.09 mg/dL vs. 162.0+/-19.80 mg/dL, p=0.011). ADA level in infectious effusion was higher compared with malignant effusion (87.9+/-42.62 IU/L vs. 27.7+/-31.04 IU/L, p=0.024). Malignant effusion (p=0.026) and infectious effusion (p=0.048) showed significantly higher level of VEGF than that of pneumothorax. VEGF level was substantially higher in malignant effusion compared with benign effusion (364.38+/-433.83 pg/dL vs. 53.3+/-22.20 pg/dL, p=NS). The pleural VEGF level did not correlate with the other markers. Conclusion: The measuring pleural VEGF may be helpful in diagnosing malignant and infectious pleural effusion that increase angiogenesis and vascular permeability, but it can not discriminate between the two. The pleural VEGF may not be correlated with the established markers. The measurement of pleural VEGF might discriminate between malignant and benign effusion.