Abstract: Objective To determine the differential diagnosis value of the levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6)、Transferrin (TRF) in pleural effusion in patients with pleural effusion.Methods Ninety-three cases with differential diagnostic pleural effusion were divided into transudatory pleural,tuberculous exudative and malignant exudative groups.IL-6、TRF were simultaneously determined in three groups,and the value of two indices was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC).Results The levels of IL-6 were significant difference among three groups.The level of IL-6 in tuberculous exudative group was the highest,and that in transudatory pleural group was the lowest.The level of TRF in exudative pleural group was higher than that in transudatory pleural group (P＜0.01);Regarding 95pg/ml as the cut off value of IL-6 and 70mg/dl as that of TRF to distinguish exudative pleural effusion from transudatory pleural effusion,the sensitivities in diagnosis exudative pleural effusion was 95.2%,85.7% respectively and the specialities was 93.3%,70% respectively.Conclusion The speciality and sensitivity of IL-6 were higher.There are diagnostic values in IL-6、TRF for identifying the property of pleural effusion.

Key words: Transferrin, Interleukin-6, Pleural effusion, Receiver operating charcteristic curve (ROC), Tuberculosis/diagnosis