introduction: medical thoracoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure for diagnosing and treating pleural diseases. despite its proven role in diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, it is infrequently used, which could be because of cost of equipment and lack of training. we analyzed our initial 3 years record of thoracoscopy at himalayan institute of medical sciences, a tertiary care center in hi...

Background: Blind percutaneous pleural biopsy has traditionally been performed to investigate the etiology of exudative pleural effusion in which the initial thoracocentesis has been non- diagnostic. In view of the increasing use of image-guided and thoracoscopic pleural biopsies, this study examined the role of blind Abrams pleural biopsy in the investigation of the exudative pleural effusion ...

Objective(s) This study planned to assess the value of PCR IS6110 assay in tissue specimens of needle pleural biopsy in patients suspicious to pleural tuberculosis. Materials and Methods Sixty eight patients with lymphocytic exudative pleural effusion underwent pleural biopsy. Tissue samples were sent for pathologic examination and PCR IS6110 assay. The results of PCR reported as positive/ nega...

background malignant pleural mesothelioma (mpm) is an uncommon neoplasm. mpm occurs more frequently in patients born or living in certain villages of turkey. objectives we aimed to review radiological findings of mpm. patients and methods we reviewed the ct findings in 219 biopsy-proven mpm patients admitted to our clinic between 1993 and 2008. results the most common ct findings included pleur...

Introduction: Different etiologies of pleural effusion are diagnosed based on serum and plural fluid characteristics. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the serum and pleural fluid protein to lactate dehyrogenase (Pr/LDH) ratio in exudative pleural effusions. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 60 patients with exudative pleural effusion including: 20 cases with para...

costochondral and rib grafts have long been used for reconstruction of lost condyle. donor site morbidity has less been under investigation and researched. pleural disruption pneumothorax and ugly scars are among the donor site complications. this study aims to determine the rate of pleural disruption following costochondral graft harvesting from the 4th to the 7th ribs of right and left ribs f...

conclusion serum cyfra21-1 is useful as a measure in differentiating malignant from benign pleural effusion. results there was statistically significant difference between mean of serum cyfra21-1 levels of benign (3.9±7.6) and malignant(19.5± 30) pleural effusion (p=0.01). in addition the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of serum cyfra21-1 at the...

background: the alteration of th1 and th2 cytokine levels is the subject of controversy in pleural effusions caused by malignancy, a situation that favors a th2 immune response. objective: to examine the different levels of il-4 and il-10 (th2 cytokines), and il-2 and interferon-γ (ifn-γ) (th1 cytokines) in malignant and non-malignant pleural effusions. method: the cytokine levels in pleural fl...