© 2004 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine
CASE REPORT
Massive pleural effusion and marked increase of CA-125
Llandough Hospital, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Syed Fayyaz Hussain
Section of Pulmonary Medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital, Stadium Road, PO Box 3500, Karachi 74800, Pakistan; sfh_pulmonary{at}yahoo.co.uk; fhussain{at}akunet.org
The tumour associated CA-125 antigen is widely used in monitoring ovarian carcinoma. In women with a massive pleural effusion and ascites, markedly increased CA-125 levels may lead to an erroneous diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Very high levels of tumour markers may be present in patients with benign pleural effusion, ascites, and chronic liver disease. Raised levels of tumour markers in serum or pleural fluid, in the absence of positive cytology, should be interpreted with caution.
Keywords: CA-125; ascites; chronic liver disease; pleural effusion
![]()
CiteULike
Complore
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati What's this?
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
