[Clinical significance of (1-->3)-beta-D-glucan in pleural effusion and liquor].

The Measurement of serum (1-->3)-beta-D-glucan (beta-glucan) has been considered to be useful in the early diagnosis of deep mycosis. In this study, we investigated the clinical significance of beta-glucan in pleural effusion or liquor from patients with various conditions. beta-glucan was measured in 29 samples of pleural effusion from 27 patients (male: 17, female: 10 median age: 62.1). Two patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment were excluded from the study of normal range of beta-glucan in these samples. beta-glucan was also measured in 39 samples of liquor from 23 inpatients (male: 15, female: 8 median age: 48.4) with certain neurological disorders. In these cases, only two patients had deep mycosis. beta-glucan in the pleural effusion from a patient with Aspergillus pyothorax showed an extremely high value of more than 1100 pg/ml. Slight elevation of beta-glucan was observed in the spinal fluid from a patient with cryptococal, meningitis. In the other cases with no mycotic infection or any factor influencing the value of beta-glucan, beta-glucan in pleural effusion and spinal fluid were generally lower than the normal range of serum samples. However, there is false positive elevation of beta-glucan in pleural effusion. The above results indicated that measurement of beta-glucan in pleural effusion or spinal fluid may be useful for the diagnosis of mycotic infection as the cause of pleuritis or meningitis.