Advantages of assaying telomerase activity in ascites for diagnosis of digestive tract malignancies

Table 1 Clinical characteristics and ascitic fluid analyses

	CA	HCC	LC
Number of patients	31	40	24
Age (yr)	65 ± 2	65 ± 2	67 ± 2
Sex: Male/Female	21/10	35/5	18/6
Protein (g/dL)	2.9 ± 0.2	1.5 ± 0.1d	1.5 ± 0.2d
SAAG (g/dL)	1.1 ± 0.1	2.0 ± 0.2b	2.0 ± 0.2b
WBC (cells/mm3)	481 ± 107	847 ± 590	149 ± 27
RBC (cells/mm3)	13093 ± 7975	192633 ± 104982	3730 ± 1515
PMN (cells/mm3)	177 ± 78	698 ± 550	20 ± 8
Lymphocytes (cells/mm3)	305 ± 77	149 ± 46a	128 ± 26a

Data are expressed as mean ± SE. CA: non-HCC gastrointestinal cancer, HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma, LC: liver cirrhosis, SAAG: serum-ascites albumin gradient, WBC: white blood count, PMN: polymorphonuclear cells.

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01,

^dP < 0.001 if compared with CA patients.