BACKGROUND Rheumatoid pleurisy rarely occurs before a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is the second leading cause of pseudochylothorax, but there are few reports of RA-associated pseudochylothorax. CASE A 50-year-old man presented to our hospital with an undiagnosed exudative pleural effusion. In order to obtain a definitive diagnosis, we performed medical thoracoscopy under local ...

OBJECTIVE We directly examined the thoracic cavity by thoracoscopy under local anesthesia, performed pleural biopsy, and made a definitive pathological diagnosis in tuberculous pleurisy. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We performed a retrospective study of 32 patients who had been bacteriologically and pathologically diagnosed with tuberculous pleurisy by thoracoscopy under local anesthesia in our hospi...

Tuberculous pleural effusions occur in up to 30% of patients with tuberculosis. It appears that the percentage of patients with pleural effusion is comparable in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive and HIV-negative individuals, although there is some evidence that HIV-positive patients with CD4+ counts <200 cells x mL(-1) are less likely to have a tuberculous pleural effusion. There has...

We studied interleukin 1 (IL-1) activity of pleural fluid macrophages and peripheral blood monocytes obtained from ten patients with tuberculous pleurisy and ten patients with malignant pleurisy, using purified protein derivative (PPD) as a stimulating agent. Tuberculous pleural fluid macrophages and peripheral blood monocytes tended to produce higher IL-1 activity than malignant pleural fluid ...

The aim is to examine whether the interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-2, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1), and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) levels were different in pleural effusions of tuberculous pleurisy and tuberculous empyema. IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, TNF-α, PAI-1, and t-PA levels in pleural fluids of 40 patients with tuberculous pleurisy and 38...

BACKGROUND Although myeloperoxidase (MPO) and adenosine-deaminase (ADA) levels are markers of activated leukocytes, both enzymes have not been currently addressed in inflammation models. AIMS This study evaluates whether the concentrations of these enzymes are significantly correlated with the content of leukocytes in a pleurisy model. METHODS The pleurisy was induced by carrageenan (1%) in...

Corresponding Author Fax: +55 48 2 44 09 36 E-mail: [email protected] Background: Although myeloperoxidase (MPO) and adenosine-deaminase (ADA) levels are markers of activated leukocytes, both enzymes have not been currently addressed in inflammation models. Aims: This study evaluates whether the concentrations of these enzymes are significantly correlated with the content of leukocytes in a ple...

Tuberculosis (TB) has traditionally been one of the major causes of pleural disease and until the earlier decades of the past century held as a principal paradigm of “pleuritis”. Indeed in the presence of a distinctly exudative effusion and a compatible clinical presentation the widely used term “pleuritis exudativa” insinuated a tuberculous aetiology and has therefore been understood to be syn...

PURPOSE Pleural effusion, an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space, usually occurs in patients when the rate of fluid formation exceeds the rate of fluid removal. The differential diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy and malignant pleural effusion is a difficult task in high tuberculous prevalence areas. The aim of the present study was to identify novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of pleura...

BACKGROUND Dihydrocorynantheol (DHC) is an alkaloid compound isolated from Esenbeckia leiocarpa Engl. that has demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties in experimental models. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the modification of the chemical structure of DHC could alter its anti-inflammatory effect in a mouse model of pleurisy induced by carrageenan. METHODS DHC was isolated ...