Fungal empyema is an emerging clinical entity associated with a high mortality rate (1). We describe a case of a patient with empyema thoracis due to Aspergillus fumigatus successfully treated by chest tube drainage associated with voriconazole (VZ). Pleural concentrations of VZ demonstrated adequate pleural diffusion of this drug. An 82-year-old patient was admitted for weight loss and a left ...

INTRODUCTION This study evaluated the performance of an in-house nested-PCR system for the detection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in pleural fluid, blood and urine samples from pleural effusion tuberculosis patients by health services physicians in Pernambuco, Brazil. METHODS A prospective double-blind study with 37 hospitalized patients of both sexes, aged over 15, was used to i...

The effects of pneumothorax or pleural effusion on respiratory function as measured by the commonly applied tests were investigated by studying 13 patients (six with pneumothorax, seven with effusion) with and, as far as possible, without air or fluid in the pleural cavity. Measurements included spirometric volumes, carbon monoxide transfer factor (TLCO), and KCO by the single breath method, ma...

BACKGROUND Percutaneous drainage of infected intraabdominal fluid collections is preferred over surgical drainage due to lower morbidity and costs. However, it can be a challenging procedure and catheter insertion carries the potential to contaminate the pleural space from the abdomen. This retrospective analysis demonstrates the clinical and radiographic correlation between percutaneous draina...

Chest tube is a flexible plastic tube used to discharge secretion in the cavity between the lungs and chest named pleural cavity. Normally, there is a small amount of fluid in the cavity between the lungs and chest; This fluid helps the movement of lungs during breathing without abrasion. Entrance of bit of air, blood or pus because injury in the pleural cavity can prevent the lungs from fully ...

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...

Pleural fluid lactic acid estimations were carried out on 60 samples by gas-liquid chromatography. Lactic acid levels in 12 patients with bacterial pleural infection were statistically significantly higher (mean, 287 mg/dl; range, 135 to 482 mg/dl) than in 18 patients with malignancy (mean, 71 mg/dl; range, 24 to 157 mg/dl) and 30 other patients with pleural effusions (mean, 19 mg/dl; range, 10...

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 objective of the study was to compare the serum-effusion albumin gradient (serum albumin level minus pleural effusion albumin level) to Light's traditional criteria (pleural fluid/serum total protein ratio greater than 0.5, pleural fluid/serum LDH ratio greater than 0.6, and pleural fluid LDH greater than 200 U/L) for identifying exudative pleural effusions. The design included prospective ...

INTRODUCTION Tuberculous pleural effusions are not always easy to diagnose but the presence of a lymphocyte-rich exudate associated with an increased adenosine deaminase level and a positive skin test result are highly sensitive diagnostic signs. CASE PRESENTATION We report a case of pleural tuberculosis in a 31-year-old white male patient from Caracas, Venezuela who was negative for human im...