The Concentration of Interleukin-27 in the pleural fluid of patients with exudative pleural effusion and its diagnostic value in differentiating between benign and malignant pleural effusion

Introduction: The excessive accumulation of pleural fluid in the pleural cavity results in pleural effusion, which is either exudative or transudative. Effective treatment of pleural effusion calls for the differential diagnosis of benign pleural effusion (BPE) and malignant pleural effusion (MPE). This study objective was to measure the concentration of IL-27 and its diagnostic value in differentiating BPE from MPE in pleural fluid of patients with exudative pleural effusion. Materials and Methods: Samples were obtained from 130 patients with exudative pleural effusion. The concentration of IL-27 in the pleural fluid was measured using ELISA. Statistical analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics tests and independent t-test in SPSS 19. The significance level in all calculations was set to 0.05. The ROC curve analysis was carried out to determine the sensitivity of IL-27 to diagnose benign pleural effusion. Findings: Of the 130 patients included in this research, 88 were MPE and 42 were BPE. The average age of the MPE and BPE groups was 57 and 59 years, respectively. The average IL-27 concentration in BPE group (344.15 ± 236.42) was significantly higher than MPE group (203.05 ± 76.03) (P=0.000). The area under the ROC curve was 0.803, which reflected the ability of IL-27 measurement to differentiate between BPE and MPE. Conclusion: Given the significant difference between the level of IL-27 in the two study groups, the measurement of this biomarker in exudative pleural effusion cases can differentiate between BPE and MPE with good sensitivity and specificity.