STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the usefulness of modifying Light's criteria for the separation of pleural transudates from exudates. DESIGN: Retrospective review of patients who underwent a diagnostic thoracentesis during a 2-year period. SETTING: Community teaching hospital in Lleida, Spain. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Clinical records and pleural fluid characteristics of 230 consecutive patients with pleural effusion underwent a detailed review. Thirty-five of these patients were excluded from the analysis. As suggested recently by Romero et al, different cutoff levels for the criteria of Light et al were applied and their accuracies were calculated. RESULTS: Thirty-nine (20%) pleural effusions were transudates and 156 (80%) were exudates. The accuracy of the criteria of Light et al for identifying exudates was 94.7% (confidence interval, 91.6 to 97.9) in comparison to our own modified criteria (93.1%; confidence interval, 89.5 to 96.7) and the criteria suggested by Romero et al (92.6%; confidence interval, 88.9 to 96.3). These differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Changing the classic Light's criteria with different cutoff points offers no advantages for discriminating between transudative and exudative pleural effusions.
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the usefulness of modifying Light's criteria for the separation of pleural transudates from exudates. DESIGN: Retrospective review of patients who underwent a diagnostic thoracentesis during a 2-year period. SETTING: Community teaching hospital in Lleida, Spain. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Clinical records and pleural fluid characteristics of 230 consecutive patients with pleural effusion underwent a detailed review. Thirty-five of these patients were excluded from the analysis. As suggested recently by Romero et al, different cutoff levels for the criteria of Light et al were applied and their accuracies were calculated. RESULTS: Thirty-nine (20%) pleural effusions were transudates and 156 (80%) were exudates. The accuracy of the criteria of Light et al for identifying exudates was 94.7% (confidence interval, 91.6 to 97.9) in comparison to our own modified criteria (93.1%; confidence interval, 89.5 to 96.7) and the criteria suggested by Romero et al (92.6%; confidence interval, 88.9 to 96.3). These differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Changing the classic Light's criteria with different cutoff points offers no advantages for discriminating between transudative and exudative pleural effusions.
Authors: Rachel M Mercer; John P Corcoran; Jose M Porcel; Najib M Rahman; Ioannis Psallidas Journal: Clin Med (Lond) Date: 2019-05 Impact factor: 2.659
Authors: Lucía Ferreiro; Francisco Gude; María E Toubes; Adriana Lama; Juan Suárez-Antelo; Esther San-José; Francisco Javier González-Barcala; Antonio Golpe; José M Álvarez-Dobaño; Carlos Rábade; Nuria Rodríguez-Núñez; Carla Díaz-Louzao; Luis Valdés Journal: J Thorac Dis Date: 2017-01 Impact factor: 2.895
Authors: Alessandra M Okino; Cristiani Bürger; Jefferson R Cardoso; Edson L Lavado; Paulo A Lotufo; Ana Campa Journal: Mediators Inflamm Date: 2006 Impact factor: 4.711