Table 1. The baseline characteristics of patients.

Variable	MPE	BPE	P-value
Patients	70	50
Mean age, years	59.34 ± 1.56	56.60 ± 2.31	0.176
Gender			0.225
Male	46 (65.71%)	38 (76%)
Female	24 (34.29%)	12 (24%)
Smoking condition
Smoker	34 (48.57%)	29 (58.00%)	0.308
Nonsmoker	36 (51.43%)	21 (42.00%)
BPE
Tuberculous	ND	40
Parapneumonic	ND	10
Diagnostic method
Biochemistry	ND	42
Cytology	65	ND
Pleural biopsy	5	8

MPE = malignant pleural effusion; BPE = benign pleural effusion; ND = no data.