形成胸腔积液的病因繁多，实验室检查可区分漏出液与渗出液，鉴别良性与恶性、结核性与非结核性胸腔积液。胸腔积液的实验室检验包括常规检验、细胞学检验、生化检验、免疫学检验和分子生物学检验。标本留取属于分析前重要的一部分，近年来越来越多的实验室认识到分析前质量控制的重要性，其在临床工作中受到越来越多的关注。形成胸腔积液的病因以结核性和癌性居多，因而出现了大量针对结核性和癌性胸腔积液检验的新项目和新技术。本文就这些新项目、新技术检测结果的意义和全程质量控制进行评述，分析其优缺点，便于临床实验室决定是否开展该项目和技术，同时也便于临床医生选择。

Etiology of pleural effusion is diverse.Transudatory or exudative, benign or malignant, tuberculous or non-tuberculous pleural effusion can be distinguished by laboratory examination, so it is helpful to find the etiology of pleural effusion to diagnose the disease and guide therapies.Laboratory examinations of pleural fluid include routine, cytology, biochemistry, immunology and molecular biology examination.More and more researchers realize the importance of laboratory quality control before analysis in recent years.Since specimens belong to this part, it has attracted more and more attention in the laboratory.As tumor and tuberculosis are main causes of pleural effusion, most new projects and technologies are aiming at diagnosing malignant and tuberculous pleural effusion.These new projects and new technologies need to be appropriately evaluated (its advantages and disadvantages) before application to clinical and then are decided whether to carry out the project and technology.It can also help clinicians in the selection of projects.