Medical Journal of The Islamic Republic of Iran (MJIRI)

 Abstract

 Background: At present, differentiation between exudative and transudative pleural

 effusion is based solely on laboratory measures and is time-consuming. Asimple

 bedside method would be of great help to differentiate between these two types of effusions.

 We present a new method for this purpose assessed in 46 patients.

 Methods: Standard laboratory tests and our method were tested using the same fluid

 samples in 46 patients with pleural effusion. Aprincipal in physics called the capillary

 tube law (h=2a/rpg) was used to compare the samples. The imbibition of the fluid

 level less than 15mm signified exudate and greater than 15mm signified transudate.

 Results: Our data shows that this method is 74% sensitive and 89.4% specific compared

 to the standard method when analyzed statistically by the chi-square and Kappa

 agreement (Cronbach’s K) tests.

 Conclusion: The capillary tube test has an acceptable validity for bedside diagnosis

 of exudative or transudative effusions.