Research article

Comparison of serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid sialic acid levels between malignant and benign lung diseases

Turgut Isitmangil¹ , Gulbu Isitmangil² , Yasemin Budak² , Recep Aydilek³ and Mehmet Kutlu Celenk³

¹  Department of Thoracic Surgery, GMMA Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

²  Department of Immunology, Yeditepe University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

³  Department of Respiratory Diseases, GMMA Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

author email corresponding author email

BMC Pulmonary Medicine 2001, 1:4doi:10.1186/1471-2466-1-4

Published:	18 December 2001

Abstract

Background

It is known that tissue and serum sialic acid levels may be altered by malignant transformation. In this study, sialic acid levels were determined in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) and serum in two groups of patients with lung cancer and non-malignant diseases of the lung.

Methods

Colorimetric methods were used for determination sialic acid in serum and in BAL samples. Flexible bronchoscopy was used to obtain the latter.

Results

Sialic acid levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and serum did not show any statistically significant difference between subjects with malignant and the non-malignant lung diseases (p > 0.05). Sialic acid levels were also unrelated to the stage and localization of the tumor (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

Sialic acid levels do not appear to be a good marker for discriminating malignant from non-malignant diseases of the lung.