In this prospective study of 70 patients with pleural effusion, the underlying disease could be identified in 62 cases. By predefined criteria, 31 of these effusions were classified as transudates and 31 as exudates. Pleural fluid protein content, LDH activity and cholesterol level were measured to investigate their utility in differentiating the exudates from the transudates. Protein and LDH l...

Van Slyke and his coworkers (14) have discussed the factors affecting the electrolyte and water distribution between serum and corpuscles and between serum and transudates with the development of equations according to the Gibbs-Donnan law predicting the influence of these factors on the distribution. An unequal distribution of electrolytes between serum and spinal fluid or between serum and as...

Pleural effusion is a common clinical condition faced in everyday practice. The first step in the management of pleural effusion is its differentiation into transudates and exudates. Light’s criteria is the most widely used parameter to differentiate pleural effusions but studies have shown that Light’s criteria misclassifies a significant number of cases. The present study was undertaken to ev...

The mechanism of re-expansion pulmonary oedema (Re-PE) is unclear. There are multiple variables in play when evaluating the response to evacuation of pleural fluid. We present an educational case of a critically ill patient admitted for respiratory failure who was fully dependent on ventricular pacing set at a constant rate throughout the episode of Re-PE. The transthoracic echocardiography (TT...

As Cameroon scales up its national HIV/AIDS control program, evaluating the performance of commercially available tests for accurate and cost effective diagnostics becomes essential. A cross-sectional study assessed the performance of an HIV oral rapid test. A total of 1520 participants consented to participate in the study. After counselling, they were tested for HIV using the national algorit...

Two patients with end-stage-renal-disease on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) presented with pleural effusions. The aspirated fluid was categorised as transudate, based on alkaline pH, low protein and lactic dehydrogenase level. A striking feature of the pleural fluid was, its very high glucose content that resulted from translocation of dextrose containing peritoneal dialysate ...

1. Comparative studies of blood serum and edema fluid from the same individual indicate that, regardless of the pathological condition present, whether the fluid be "transudate" or "exudate," certain definite qualitative chemical relations obtain. 2. The chief feature of these relations is that the edema fluid contains more Cl and less K than the blood serum; while the Na, HCO(3), Ca, urea, glu...

Research has consistently documented that social relationships influence physical health, a link that may implicate systemic inflammation. We examined whether daily social interactions predict levels of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 and the soluble receptor for tumor necrosis factor-α (sTNFαRII) and their reactivity to a social stressor. One-hundred twenty-two healthy young adults completed da...

We report the pleural fluid values of thyroid hormones and their carrier proteins in a patient who suffered from nephrotic syndrome with renal insufficiency and transient hypothyroidism. The pleural effusion was transudate. The concentrations of thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG), thyroxine-binding prealbumin (TBPA), and albumin (Alb) were approximately 30-50% of the plasma. The concentrations of...