Introduction: Pleural effusion may develop during various acute or chronic medical conditions. Despite different diagnostic workups, some cases of pleural effusion may remain undiagnosed. Pleuroscopy and closed biopsy are common diagnostic approaches used for the diagnosis of undiagnosed cases. The present research aimed to evaluate the diagnostic yield of medical pleuroscopy a...

BACKGROUND The use of secondary data is widespread in a range of surveillance and monitoring applications because of the low cost and high availability associated with this form of data. However, as they are often collected for quite unrelated purposes, they are not necessarily fit for the new purpose that is required of them. Routine meat inspection data were originally collected with the purp...

Adult-onset Still's disease is characterized by seronegative arthritis, fever, and an evanescent skin rash. Earlier reports have described pneumonitis and pleuritis as manifestations of this disease. We report a patient with adult-onset Still's disease with severe restrictive ventilatory impairment and evidence of respiratory muscle weakness who responded to corticosteroid and aspirin therapy.

Atypical mycobacterial infection is seldom accompanied by pleural involvement. We report a very rare case of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare pleuritis with massive pleural effusion. The patient was a non-immunocompromised 35-year-old Japanese male with insidious onset of fever, chest pain and anorexia. The pleural effusion gradually resolved with empirical antimycobacterial treatment, leavin...

BACKGROUND Diagnosis of tuberculous (TB) pleuritis is difficult and better diagnostic tools are needed. New blood based interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) tests are promising, but sensitivity could be low in HIV positive patients. The IFN-gamma tests have not yet been validated for use in pleural fluid, a compartment with higher level of immune activation than in blood. METHODS The QuantiFERON TB-G...

The diagnosis of uremia-associated effusion is one of exclusion. A patient with an unexplained chronic pleural exudate, which cleared with dialysis, is reported. The differential diagnosis of pleural effusions in patients with chronic kidney disease and the management of uremic pleuritis is briefly discussed.