Total adenosine deaminase cases as an inflammatory biomarker of pleural effusion syndrome

Table 2 Levels of pleural adenosine deaminase evaluated in 157 cases of pleural effusion syndrome confirmed with reference standard diagnostic tests¹

Cause	Pleural fluids–sample size (n)	P-ADA (medians) (U/L)	25th-75th percentile
Non-Inflammatory disease (control)
Transudate	33	6.85	2.67-11.26
Inflammatory disease (case)	124	18.4	9.25-41.4
Tuberculosis	44	42.0	32.9-61.9
Adenocarcinoma	37	9.75	6.7-14.9
Simple parapneumonic effusion	15	9.38	5.68-9.97
CPPE and empyema	8	32.9	16.0-61.7
Lymphoma	7	401.2	11.2-990.5
Squamous cell carcinoma	7	13.11	11.0-28.2
Other	6	15.2	7.4-49.0

¹Shapiro-Wilk test for pleural adenosine deaminase (W = 0.347, P < 0.0001). K-W test for pleural adenosine deaminase (H = 81.34, P < 0.0001) and Dunn’s test with P < 0.05: Tuberculosis vs transudates, vs simple PPE, and vs adenocarcinoma, and P > 0.05: CPPE and empyemas, lymphomas, squamous cell carcinoma, and other exudates.

CPPE: Complicated parapneumonic effusions; P-ADA: Pleural adenosine deaminase.