lights_criteria_effusion: Light's Criteria for Pleural Effusion

In cliot: Clinical Indices and Outcomes Tools

Light's Criteria for Pleural Effusion

Description

Applies Light's Criteria to differentiate between transudative and exudative pleural effusions. An effusion is classified as exudative if at least one of the three criteria is met: 1. Pleural fluid protein / Serum protein > 0.5 2. Pleural fluid LDH / Serum LDH > 0.6 3. Pleural fluid LDH > 2/3 * Serum LDH Upper Limit of Normal (ULN)

Usage

lights_criteria_effusion(pleural_protein, serum_protein, pleural_ldh,
                         serum_ldh, serum_ldh_uln)

Arguments

pleural_protein	Numeric. Pleural fluid protein level (g/dL).
serum_protein	Numeric. Serum protein level (g/dL).
pleural_ldh	Numeric. Pleural fluid Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) level (U/L).
serum_ldh	Numeric. Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) level (U/L).
serum_ldh_uln	Numeric. The laboratory's upper limit of normal for serum LDH (U/L).

Value

A list containing:

Classification	"Exudative" or "Transudative".
Criteria_Met	A list of the specific criteria that triggered the exudative classification.
Calculated_Values	The calculated ratios and thresholds used.

References

Light RW, Macgregor MI, Luchsinger PC, Ball WC Jr. Pleural effusions: the diagnostic separation of transudates and exudates. Ann Intern Med. 1972;77(4):507-513. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-77-4-507

Examples

# Example 1: Exudative (High Protein Ratio)
# P-Prot 4.0, S-Prot 6.0 (Ratio 0.66), LDH normal
lights_criteria_effusion(4.0, 6.0, 100, 200, 250)

# Example 2: Transudative
# P-Prot 2.0, S-Prot 7.0 (Ratio 0.28), P-LDH 80, S-LDH 200, ULN 250
# All ratios low
lights_criteria_effusion(2.0, 7.0, 80, 200, 250)

cliot documentation built on Dec. 1, 2025, 1:06 a.m.