title: Age and sex distribution in malignant and tuberculous serous effusions: A study of 127 patients and review of the literature.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Tuberculosis and carcinomatosis are the two most frequent causes of pleural effusion and exudative ascites, and both are characterized by lymphocyte-rich effusion. We attempted to discover if there is any significant difference in the age and sex distribution between patients presenting with these two conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 161 serous effusion samples from 127 patients (89 with pleural effusion and 38 with ascites) having follow-up biopsy and histopathological examination were included in the present study. Three groups - malignancy (47 patients), tuberculosis (47) and non-tuberculous benign lesions (26) as per histopathological diagnoses - were compared in respect to age and sex distribution.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 29 (61.7%) patients with malignancy were aged ≥50 years as compared with three (6.4%) tuberculosis patients with serous effusions (P = 0.00000). A similar trend was observed in the ≥60 years age group (18 or 38.3% malignancy vs none with tuberculosis, P = 0.00000). A total of 36 (76.6%) tuberculous effusion patients were aged less than 40 years as opposed to eight (17.0%) patients with malignant effusions (P = 0.00000). There was also s significant difference between tuberculous and non-tuberculous benign lesions in the ≥50 years age group (6.4% vs 69.2%, P = 0.00000), but no significant difference between malignancy and non-tuberculous benign lesions (P = 0.61385). There were 31 female (66.0%) patients with malignancy, which was significantly higher than that of patients with tuberculosis (16, [34%], P = 0.00365) and non-specific inflammation/benign lesions (23.1%, P = 0.00059). However, the difference between tuberculosis and non-tuberculous benign lesions was not significant (P = 0.42756).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Whereas malignancy in serous effusions is found in older and middle-aged people, tuberculous effusion is a disease of younger people.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait.|Cytology Unit, Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital, Safat, Kuwait.
authors.forename: Dilip K
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8340-9220
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Das
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016066:Pleural Effusion, Malignant / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014396:Tuberculosis, Pleural / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: age and sex distribution; ascites; malignancy; pleural effusion; tuberculosis