Table 4.

Comparison of subjects with malignant and benign pleural effusions

	Pleural fluid DNA integrity index Median (IQR 25 - 75)	p-value
Diagnosis		<0.001
Malignant pleural effusion (n = 52)	1.1 (0.8 – 1.5)
Non-malignant pleural effusion (n = 23)	0.8 (0.7 – 0.9)
Gender		0.494
Female (n = 27)	0.95 (0.77 – 1.35)
Male (n = 48)	0.94 (0.74 – 1.26)
Smoking		0.996
Never (n = 25)	0.94 (0.79 – 1.28)
Current/former smoker (n = 50)	0.95 (0.73 – 1.37)
Light’s criteria classification		0.914
Transudate (n = 7)	0.91 (0.83 – 1.45)
Exudate (n = 68)	0.96 (0.73 – 1.29)
Pleural fluid cytology		0.082
Negative/Equivocal	0.90
(n = 46)	(0.75 – 1.12)
Positive	1.12
(n = 29)	(0.75 – 1.56)

*p-value-Mann-Whitney U test comparing diagnoses with benign effusions.