Fig. 4.
Pleural effusion PEC cluster counts and Receiver Operator Characteristics Curve. (A) Total PEC cluster count/mL for malignant and non-malignant patients after clinical review. The median number of PEC clusters/mL in the malignant group was significantly higher than in the non-malignant group: 86 PEC clusters/mL (range: 0–63,935) and 0 PEC clusters/mL (range: 0–24) p<0.001. (B) Receiver Operator Characteristics curve (ROC curve) for PEC clusters in pleural fluid does discriminate between benign and malignant effusions: cutoff 28 PEC clusters/mL; sensitivity 62%, specificity 100%, AUC 0.88 (95% CI 0.81–0.95).