Table 1. Demographic characteristics, patient symptoms, and results of culture of biopsy specimens for patients who received a diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis (TB), compared with patients who did not receive a diagnosis of pleural TB, after pleural biopsy and thoracentesis testing.
| Variable | Patients with confirmed pleural TB (n = 70) |
Patients who had a negative result of culture for TB (n = 41) |
P |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demographic characteristic | |||
| Male sexa | 75.7 | 69.3 | .4 |
| Age, median years ± SD (range)b | 26 ± 19.4 (17–80) | 47 ± 21.4 (17–89) | <.01 |
| Reported symptom | |||
| Fevera | 72.9 | 48.8 | .01 |
| Night sweatsa | 60.0 | 34.1 | .01 |
| Weight lossa | 84.2 | 70.7 | .09 |
| Mean no. of biopsies (range)c | 1.8 (1–4) | 1.4 (1–4) | .09 |
| Finding of culture of biopsy specimen | |||
| Presence of caseous necrosisa | 45.7 | 12.5 | <.01 |
| Neoplastic diagnosis | 0.0 | 9.8 | .01 |
NOTE. Data are percentage of patients, unless otherwise indicated.
a
Compared using Student’s t test.
b
Compared using Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
c
Compared using χ2 test.