The tumour associated CA-125 antigen is widely used in monitoring ovarian carcinoma. In women with a massive pleural effusion and ascites, markedly increased CA-125 levels may lead to an erroneous diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Very high levels of tumour markers may be present in patients with benign pleural effusion, ascites, and chronic liver disease. Raised levels of tumour markers in serum or...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is the most common mesothelial malignancy, which arises from the malignant transformation of mesothelial cells that line the pleural cavity. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a highly invasive disease with a very long latency and treatment is rarely effective, since only few patients survive more than one year after diagnosis (Carbone et al., 2007). Asbestos, a fi...

Thoracoscopy is currently the gold standard for the diagnosis and treatment of pleural diseases. Its diagnostic yield is 95% in patients with malignant pleural disease, with approximately 90% successful pleurodesis for malignant pleural effusion and 95% for pneumothorax. At the same time, thoracoscopy constitutes an important tool in the research of pleural pathophysiology and molecular biology...

Plasma cell myeloma (PCM) is a hematologic malignancy of plasma cell origin and usually associated with the presence of lytic bone lesions. Pleural effusions are rarely associated with PCM and most often signify a concurrent disease process. Malignant myelomatous pleural effusions are even more unusual and carry a poor prognosis. We report a unique case of unsuspected PCM with thoracic involvem...

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis kills five lakh patients every year in India, commonest being pulmonary tuberculosis and is often associated with effusion. Delay in diagnosis and treatment results in poor prognosis. Several studies have suggested the role of adenosine deaminase (ADA) in the diagnosis of tuberculous pleural effusions, but false-positive results from lymphocytic effusions have also been ...

Purpose: To assess the visualization of different coronary stents using 16and 64-slice multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) coronary angiography. Materials and Methods: Ten different coronary artery stents commercially used in Korea were placed in a vascular phantom and examined with a 16and 64-slice MDCT; for image reconstruction, a standard medium-soft (B30f) kernel and a stent-optimized...

A 70-year-old woman was hospitalized for dyspnea and chest pain. After radiological examinations and bronchoscopy, she was diagnosed with a stage IVsmall-cell carcinoma of the lung. Collaterally, chest CT showed an hypodense pleural sessile mass, with smooth, well defined borders and homogeneous fat attenuation of approximately –100 HU; it showed no enhancement after intravenous contrast materi...

Thoracoscopy is currently the gold standard for the diagnosis and treatment of pleural diseases. Its diagnostic yield is 95% in patients with malignant pleural disease, with approximately 90% successful pleurodesis for malignant pleural effusion and 95% for pneumothorax. At the same time, thoracoscopy constitutes an important tool in the research of pleural pathophysiology and molecular biology...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive malignancy of the pleura correlated with exposure to asbestos, with a medium survival of 11-12 months after diagnosis. A case of a 67-year-old male who had previously worked in the asbestos industry and is a current smoker is reported. The computed tomography evaluation revealed a right pleural mass with pleural thickening, and the pleural...