Pleural involvement in systemic diseases is usually a sign of lesions occurring at other levels. Despite the low incidence (around 1%) of pleural effusions caused by systemic diseases, more often connective tissue diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus, may present with this. Similarly, vasculitis, such as Wegener's granulomatosis, Churg-Strauss syndrome, or less...

The use of intrapleural instillation of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (r-tPA) in the treatment of pleural infection may increase pleural fluid drainage associated with a clinical and imaging improvement, leading to a faster resolution. The use of r-tPA is generally well tolerated. Here we report 2 cases of massive pleural hemorrhage resulting in life-threatening hypovolemia, in 2 pat...

A 77-year-old Haitian woman complained of two months history of cough and left upper quadrant abdominal pain. She had a remote history of tuberculosis that was treated back in Haiti many years ago. Imaging studies showed a left pleural effusion with posterior pleural thickening as well as lymphadenopathy in the left hilum and left supraclavicular area. The Pleural biopsy was consistent with ext...

Intrapleural tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and deoxyribonuclease (DNase) therapy has recently been shown to improve outcomes in pleural infection in a randomized trial. Published literature, to date, consists of only ∼50 patients who had received tPA/DNase. Safety data of this regimen remain limited. Pleural contents often track along chest drains, but the effect of tPA/DNase on subcutaneo...

Pleural thickenings can be caused by asbestos exposure and may evolve into malignant pleural mesothelioma. While an early diagnosis plays the key role to an early treatment, and therefore helping to reduce morbidity, the growth rate of a pleural thickening can be in turn essential evidence to an early diagnosis of the pleural mesothelioma. The detection of pleural thickenings is today done by a...

While pelvic endometriosis is relatively common, thoracic menstruation is rare. A report of what is believed to be the first case of thoracic endometriosis in Uganda is given. A 34-year-old female was complaining of on and off chest pain mainly on the right side. Clinically she had signs of pleural effusion and 500 mls of altered blood were tapped from her right pleural space. Worried about a p...

Introduction. Pleural mesothelioma with metastasis to the subcutaneous tissue of the abdominal wall at first diagnosis and without penetration into the peritoneum is an extremely rare clinical presentation. Methods. Patients with pleural mesothelioma have low survival rate. Usually, the disease at presentation is confined to its site of origin (most often the pleural cavity). A 55-year-old man ...

Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) is a rare tumor of vascular origin. While it can be found in any tissue, it is most often found in lung and liver and usually has an intermediate behavior. EHEs originating from pleural tissue have been less frequently described than those from other sites. Furthermore, to date, all of the cited pleural EHEs were described as highly aggressive. In the pres...

Anthracycline extravasation is a feared complication of intravenous (i.v.) chemotherapy due to the tissue toxicity of this group of drugs. We describe a 54-year-old woman with history of stage IIIa breast cancer, receiving adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide. The chemotherapy was administered through a Poweport® device, the position of which was confirmed with f...

This report is the result of an analysis of the medical records of 124 patients presenting with a malignant pleural mesothelioma. Information about asbestos exposure was available in 104 of them, which appeared to be positive in 95 (91%). The median duration of exposure was 34 yrs. The median latent period was 41 yrs. The median survival was 11 months while different ways of treatment could not...