DIAGNOSTIC VALUE OF PLEURAL FLUID GLUCOSE IN DIFFERENTIATING MALIGNANT AND BENIGN PLEURAL EFFUSIONS

Background: Malignant pleural effusions (MPE) are a common and serious complication of cancer, significantly affecting patient quality of life and survival. Biochemical analysis of pleural fluid, including glucose measurement, plays a vital role in evaluating the nature of pleural effusions. Objective: To assess the diagnostic utility of pleural fluid glucose in distinguishing malignant from benign pleural effusions. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted, evaluating pleural glucose levels in patients with malignant and benign pleural effusions. Statistical methods included the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to assess distribution, followed by Independent Samples t-tests and the Mann-Whitney U test to compare glucose levels between the two groups. Results: Glucose values exhibited a non-normal distribution (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, p < 0.001). Comparative analysis using both parametric and non-parametric tests showed no statistically significant difference between malignant and benign groups (Levene’s test p = 0.763, t-test p = 0.874, Mann-Whitney U p = 0.871). These findings suggest that glucose concentration alone does not have discriminatory power for MPE diagnosis. Conclusion: Although pleural fluid glucose is commonly reduced in malignant effusions, particularly when tumor invasion is advanced, this study found no significant difference in glucose levels between malignant and benign cases. Glucose should not be used in isolation as a diagnostic marker for MPE and must be interpreted alongside other clinical and biochemical indicators.