Table. 2—

Results of laboratory analysis

	Controls	CA	TM	INF	TB	CHF
Subjects n	20	58	38	45	28	45
Percentage of exudates %		95	92	80	93	22
Leukocytes in effusion ·µL⁻¹		6412±13702	1963±2390	5873±8975	3221±3535	330±227
Significant differences		^#			^#	^¶^,ƒ
LDH ratio effusion/serum		3.20±7.22	1.79±1.77	6.51±11.11	1.85±1.19	0.449±0.307
Significant differences		^#	^#	^#	^#	^¶,+,§,ƒ
Protein ratio effusion/serum		0.657±0.212	0.690±0.213	0.497±0.165	0.723±0.136	0.318±0.143
Significant differences		^#	^#	^#	^#	^¶,+,§,ƒ
VEGF pg·mL⁻¹ in serum	51±21	500±410	405±291	660±536	362±268	290±248
Significant differences	^¶,+,§	^##	^##	^##,#		^#
VEGF pg·mL⁻¹ in effusion		2349±2910	2183±2648	955±1488	762±936	196±532
Significant differences		^§,ƒ,#	^§,ƒ,#	^¶,+,ƒ,#	^¶,+,§	^¶,+,§
VEGF ratio effusion/serum		6.17±8.16	9.48±20.8	4.46±11.38	2.93±3.46	0.849±1.32
Significant differences		^§,ƒ,#	^§,ƒ,#	^¶,+	^¶,+	^¶,+

Data presented as mean±sd, unless otherwise stated. CA: lung cancer; TM: tumours with secondaries; INF: acute infections; TB: tuberculosis; CHF: congestive heart failure; LDH: lactate dehydrogenase; VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor. Differences were significant at p<0.01 for ^#: versus CHF; ^¶: versus CA; ⁺: versus TM; ^§: versus INF; ^ƒ: versus TB; ^##: versus control.