title: How to increase the diagnostic value of malignancy-related ascites: discriminative ability of the ascitic tumour markers.
abstract: Making a differential diagnosis between malignant and non-malignant ascites is an important clinical issue, but cytological examination has a relatively low diagnostic sensitivity. This study aimed to find a discriminative model that distinguished between malignancy-related and non-malignant ascites. The study included 107 patients: 50 with non-malignant and 57 with malignant ascites. Ascites was analysed using a range of tumour markers and standard cytology. Standardized canonical discriminant function coefficients were used to distinguish between ascites types. The combination of carbohydrate antigen (CA) 15-3, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cytokeratin 19 fragments (CYFRA-21.1) discriminated between malignancy-related ascites and non-malignant ascites with an accuracy of 98.8% compared with an accuracy of 77.8% for cytological examination. In conclusion, the use of a discriminant function constructed from a combination of CA15-3, CEA and CYFRA-21.1 could distinguish malignant from non-malignant ascites with greater accuracy than cytological examination. Further studies in larger population groups are warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey. dryektatuzun@dicle.edu.tr
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tuzun
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dursun
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Canoruc
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Celik
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cil
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Boyraz
mesh_terms: D001201:Ascites / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor