Utility of ascitic tumor markers and adenosine deaminase for differential diagnosis of tuberculous peritonitis and peritoneal carcinomatosis

BACKGROUND: Differential diagnosis between tuberculous peritonitis and peritoneal carcinomatosis remains challenging in clinical practice; thus, in-patients diagnosed with tuberculous peritonitis or peritoneal carcinomatosis were retrospectively enrolled, and diagnostic values of ascitic tumor markers and adenosine deaminase were determined. METHODS: Consecutive patients diagnosed with tuberculous peritonitis or peritoneal carcinomatosis were retrospectively enrolled. The pertinent data of 169 patients enrolled were collected. RESULTS: A panel of ascitic tumor makers (CEA, CA15-3, CA19-9) had high specificity (96.83%) and accuracy (94.67%) in the differentiation of peritoneal carcinomatosis from tuberculous peritonitis; and ascitic ADA was a good discriminator between these patients, with an accuracy of 91.72%. Combined use of ascitic tumor makers and ADA (ascitic ADA < 22.5 IU/L or ascitic CEA > 3.65 ng/mL or CA15-3 > 42.70 U/mL or CA19-9 > 25.10 U/mL) performed high sensitivity (99.06%) and accuracy (94.08%) for the diagnosis of peritoneal carcinomatosis. In addition, combined ascitic ADA and tumor marker (positive ascitic tumor makers and ADA < 22.50 IU/L) had 100% of the specificity in diagnosing peritoneal carcinomatosis. CONCLUSIONS: Combined use of ascitic tumor markers and adenosine deaminase showed excellent efficiency in the differential diagnosis between tuberculous peritonitis and peritoneal carcinomatosis, thus these two simple and cost‐effective parameters should be determined when tuberculous peritonitis or peritoneal carcinomatosis was suspected in clinic practice. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12876-022-02480-x.