The presence of an intra-articular knee effusion requires an extensive differential diagnosis and a systematic diagnostic approach. Pediatric knee effusions occur most commonly as acute hemarthroses after traumatic injury. However, the knee joint is susceptible to effusions secondary to a wide variety of atraumatic causes. Special attention is required in the atraumatic effusion to distinguish ...

Pleural effusions occur in patients with primary lymphoedema. Twenty such cases from published reports have been reviewed by Beer et al.' Although these effusions may be massive with rapid reaccumulation after thoracocentesis, we have been able to find only two brief reports of cases in which obliteration of the pleural space by pleurectomy2 3 was considered necessary. We have found no histolog...

BACKGROUND Large pleural effusions are usually symptomatic. We report a patient with asymptomatic massive left sided pleural effusion with left lung collapse secondary to a traumatic diaphragmatic hernia. CASE PRESENTATION A 44 year old male presented with recurrent pleural effusions over six weeks. His pleural effusion was first diagnosed incidentally on a chest X-ray after a fall. Extensive...

abstract  background: at present, differentiation between exudative and transudative pleural  effusion is based solely on laboratory measures and is time-consuming. asimple  bedside method would be of great help to differentiate between these two types of effusions.  we present a new method for this purpose assessed in 46 patients.  methods: standard laboratory tests and our method were tested ...

Hexosaminidase, alpha-mannosidase, beta-galactosidase, beta-glucuronidase, and arylsulphatase A were measured inperitoneal and pleural effusions from patients with benign, malignant, and inflammatory disorders. Compared with the benign transudates, all enzyme activities were moderately elevated in malignant effusions and markedly elevated in inflammatory effusions. The assay of hexosaminidase a...

Malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) are the second leading cause of exudative pleural effusions after parapneumonic effusions. In the vast majority of cases, a MPE signifies incurable disease associated with high morbidity and mortality. Considerable advances have been made for the diagnosis of MPEs, through the development of improved methods in the specialized cytological and imaging studies. ...

We describe a man who developed pleural effusion with Pasteurella multocida, and review the reported literature concerning this entity. We identified 21 such cases, including our own. Most patients with P. multocida pleural effusions are immunocompromised and/or have significant co-morbidities. These effusions are typically complicated parapneumonic effusions that are grossly purulent (87%) wit...

Examination of effusions from body cavities must include a search for neoplastic as well as inflammatory cells. Neoplastic cells found in the thorax are generally derived from adenocarcinomas or mesotheliomas. Mesotheliomas are relatively uncommon and the neoplastic cells found in effusions are difficult to differentiate from activated cells in inflammatory effusions. An ante-mortem diagnosis o...

Pleural effusions from rats exposed to high concentrations of oxygen for periods of up to 96 hr. were analyzed by routine clinical chemical methods.When compared to control rat serum, the values for glutamic oxalacetic transaminase, the albumin/ globulin ratio, potassium, and inorganic phosphate were higher in the pleural effusions. Alkaline phosphatase, total protein, albumin, and calcium valu...

Six patients with malignant effusions, five from adenocarcinomas and one from a melanoma, were treated by intrapleural or intraperitoneal Corynebacterium parvum. In each case there was a definite reduction in the effusions with a significant decrease in the number of malignant cells; in most cases the effusions stopped completely. Although none of the patients lived for more than a year after t...