BACKGROUND Malignant pleural effusions are one of the leading causes of exudative pleural effusions. We studied the clinical profile of patients presenting with malignant pleural effusion, their cytological and histopathological features and the efficacy of pleurodesis in preventing recurrence. MATERIALS AND METHODS 100 patients who were positive for malignant cells in pleural fluid cytology ...

BACKGROUND Early pleural tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis is particularly difficult. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of the Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA) assay using pleural biopsy and pleural fluid specimens in patients with suspected pleural TB but who had a negative sputum acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this study, 134 s...

BACKGROUND High pleural fluid levels of neurone-specific enolase (NSE) have been reported, not only in patients with small cell lung cancer but also in those with chronic inflammatory diseases. METHODS NSE concentrations were determined in pleural fluid and serum from 342 patients with pleural effusions including 17 with rheumatoid arthritis. RESULTS The median NSE concentration in pleural ...

There have been recently documented reports of pneumothorax and persistent air leaks as complications associated with SARS CoV-2-related ARDS. Alveolar-pleural fistulas broncho-pleural can lead to the development pneumothorax.

OBJECTIVES Our previous study demonstrated that superoxide dismutase levels were higher in tuberculous pleural effusions than in malignant pleural effusions, but that this difference could not be used to discriminate between the two. The objective of the present study was to investigate the levels of superoxide dismutase 2 in pleural effusions and to evaluate the diagnostic significance of pleu...

BACKGROUND Some trials recently demonstrated the benefit of targeted treatment for malignant disease; therefore, adequate tissues are needed to detect the targeted gene. Pleural biopsy using flex-rigid pleuroscopy and pleural effusion cell block analysis are both useful for diagnosis of malignancy and obtaining adequate samples. The purpose of our study was to compare the diagnostic utility bet...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in developing countries including Nepal. One of the common presentations of TB is pleural effusion. The diagnosis of tubercular pleural effusion can be difficult because of the low rate of detecting tubercule bacilli by direct stain and culture of pleural fluid for acid-fast bacilli (AFB). Pleural biopsy can be useful but is invasive and requir...

The objective of the study was to determine if residual pleural thickening after treatment for pleural tuberculosis could be predicted from the pleural fluid findings at the time of the initial thoracentesis. Forty-four patients initially diagnosed as having pleural tuberculosis between January 1986 and January 1988 were separated into two groups: the 23 patients in group 1 had residual pleural...

Pleural effusion is a common clinical problem. In the normal state, the pleural cavity is bathed in a small volume of physiologic pleural fluid containing mainly macrophages and lymphocytes. The volume of the pleural fluid can increase dramatically with most pathologic conditions affecting the pleura. The pleural effusion will alter the respiratory mechanics, commonly resulting in dyspnea. It i...

Unexpandable lung is the inability of the lung to expand to the chest wall allowing for normal visceral and parietal pleural apposition. It is the direct result of either pleural disease, endobronchial obstruction resulting in lobar collapse, or chronic atelectasis. Unexpandable lung occurring as a consequence of active or remote pleural disease may present as a post-thoracentesis hydropneumoth...