OBJECTIVE Previous studies have demonstrated that closed pleural biopsy (CPB) has a sensitivity of less than 60% for diagnosing malignancy. Therefore, controversy has recently emerged regarding the value of CPB as a diagnostic test. Our objective was to assess the accuracy of CPB in diagnosing malignancy in patients with pleural effusion. METHODS This was a prospective 8-year study of individ...

BACKGROUND Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a molecular biology technique which can detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) genome in pleural fluid; however, the results are variable. METHODS Two hundred and twelve pleural fluid specimens suspected to be possibly associated with tuberculosis with negative acid-fast smears were sent to our laboratory to test for the presence of M. tuberculosi...

Pleural mesothelioma is the disease of elderly, usually in seventh decade life. Asbestos exposure most common finding among these patients. Other causes include a simian virus, radiation exposure, genetic predisposition and erionite. Common symptoms shortness breath, weight loss, dull achy chest pain on site lesion anorexia. effusion video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) biopsy investigation choi...

Objective: To find out the causes of lymphocytic exudative pleural effusion as revealed by percutaneous pleural biopsy, in Peshawar. Type of Study: It was a retrospective study. Place & Duration: The study was conducted on patients admitted in the Pulmonology Department, Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar and Medical A unit, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar during January to December 2003. Methods...

OBJECTIVE We directly examined the thoracic cavity by thoracoscopy under local anesthesia, performed pleural biopsy, and made a definitive pathological diagnosis in tuberculous pleurisy. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We performed a retrospective study of 32 patients who had been bacteriologically and pathologically diagnosed with tuberculous pleurisy by thoracoscopy under local anesthesia in our hospi...

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: pleurisy is a common extra pulmonary complication of tuberculosis, but current methods for diagnosing it are fairly crude. here we product a meta-analysis for the available evidence on the ability of tumor necrosis factor-? (tnf-?) in pleural fluid to serve as a diagnostic marker of tuberculous pleurisy (tp). materials and methods: we searched the pubmed, embase, and google scholar ...