Abstract: Objective To eveluate the concentration of inferon(IFN) gamma and tumour necrosis factor(TNF) alpha in pleural effision in the diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy.Method IFN γ and TNF α of serum and pleural effusion in 41 patients with tuberculous pleurisy,40 patients with malignant pleurisy and 41 healthy individuals serum were detected by ELISA method.Result The concentration of IFN γ and TNF α were much higher in tuberculous pleurisy(427.3±56.8?184.7±64.7),than malignant pleurisy(45.6±20.3,50.5±18.7) P<0.01.The serum concertration of them were low in two groups( P >0.05).The sensitivity,specificity,accuracy of IFN γ in the diagnosis of tuberculosis pleurisy were 100.0%,97.5%,98.8%,respectively.Similarly,those of TNF α for the diagnosis were 87.8%,90.0%,88.9%,respectively.Conclusion Our results indicate that simultaneous measurement of IFN γ and TNF α in pleural effusion might be helpful for the diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pleural IFN-γ, TNF-α