Etiology of exudative pleural effusion among adults: differentiating between tuberculous and other causes, a multicenter prospective cohort study

<b>Background:</b> Exudative pleural effusions have a broad etiology and usually necessitate further investigative workup including invasive procedures. <b>Aims and Objectives:</b> The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and biochemical characteristics of tuberculous and malignant/nontuberculous pleural effusions. <b>Methods:</b> This is a prospective multicenter cohort study of patients referred for medical thoracoscopy with an exudative pleural effusion. <b>Results:</b> A total of 159 patients were enrolled in the study with a mean age of 42.49 ± 13.8 years. Patients with tuberculous effusions had a higher body temperature 37.2 ± 0.7 vs 36.9 ± 0.4, p &lt;0.001). Serum analysis showed a statistically significant difference between white blood cell count 9.0 ±3.3 vs 7.5±2.7, p 0.004 and total protein 70.2 ± 8.9 vs 76.2 ± 10.1, p &lt; 0.001 between tuberculous and non-tuberculosis effusions. Pleural fluid analysis revealed a significantly higher lymphocyte count, protein, and ADA in tuberculous effusions. (Table1) <b>Conclusion:</b> Our study validates previous findings showing similar results in patients with tuberculous pleural effusions. A predictive model using several of the collected parameters is being developed.