We report a case of an immunocompetent 18-year-old man with a massive hemorrhagic, exudative, lymphocytic pleural effusion. Blind transthoracic pleural biopsy showed granuloma formation, while the pleural fluid culture was positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, confirming the diagnosis of primary tuberculous pleuritis. A massive hemorrhagic pleural effusion is extremely rare in tuberculosis, ...

Background and aims: Nowadays, routine invasive techniques to diagnose the causes of exudative pleural effusion are going to be replaced by new noninvasive methods such as biomarkers which with the same diagnostic accuracy can confirm malignant situations at least in a group of cases who do not need more invasive means. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical and case-control study, the calprot...

Objectives. To study the diagnostic value of pleural fluid cholesterol in differentiating transudative and exudative pleural effusion. To compare pleural fluid cholesterol level for exudates with Light's criteria. Design. Cross sectional descriptive study. Settings. Medical wards of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Methods. Sixty two cases of pleural effusion with definite clinical diagn...

AIM To assess the evolution in management of children with parapneumonic effusion and empyema in a tertiary referral centre. METHOD We conducted a retrospective case note review of paediatric patients with parapneumonic effusion, pleural effusion and pleural empyema between December 2006 and December 2015. Digital database searches were performed to identify demographic data, referring hospit...

Pleural effusions, seen in isolation or in association with a number of pulmonary and systemic diseases, are common problems in both the in-patient and out-patient setting. The incidence of pleural effusion in the general population is hard to estimate. Reports suggest an incidence of 0.3% in the general population, with as many as 800,000 cases annually. Pleural effusions frequently complicate...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae has been associated with respiratory tract infections. Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia-related pleural effusion is rarely reported. Extra-pulmonary abnormalities such as encephalitis, myocarditis, glomerulonephritis, and myringitis have been reported. However pulmonary manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus include pneumonitis, pleurisy, interstitial lung disease, ...

Up to 25% of malignant pleural effusions can remain undiagnosed following history, physical examination, thoracentesis, and percutaneous closed pleural biopsy. The next diagnostic procedure is often rigid thoracoscopy, an invasive procedure requiring an operating suite and usually a postprocedure chest tube. We performed flexible fiberoptic pleuroscopy using a fiberoptic bronchoscope in conjunc...

In this study we investigate the diagnostic value of pleural fluid procalcitonin (PCT) in distinguishing infectious and noninfectious etiologies of pleural effusion. We reviewed the medical records of 75 hospitalized patients who underwent thoracentesis between 2011 and 2012. Data on pleural fluid lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), protein, albumin, cell count and differential, pH, Gram stain and cul...

The rise in adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity in the pleural fluid of tuberculous pleurisy patients, though used for diagnosis, is of unknown origin. In this work, we determined ADA activity and the activities of 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase and ADA-2 in 350 patients. We also considered whether the results throw light on the origin of high pleural fluid ADA in tuberculous pleurisy and estimated...