Background: Blind percutaneous pleural biopsy has traditionally been performed to investigate the etiology of exudative pleural effusion in which the initial thoracocentesis has been non- diagnostic. In view of the increasing use of image-guided and thoracoscopic pleural biopsies, this study examined the role of blind Abrams pleural biopsy in the investigation of the exudative pleural effusion ...

vs interferon (IFN)showed that IFNis superior to ADA, although the difference is small. Therefore, establishing a diagnosis of tuberculosis pleuritis based only on pleural fluid ADA without pleural biopsy findings is still controversial.6 We do not intend to deny the usefulness of pleural fluid ADA for diagnosing tuberculosis pleuritis. Furthermore, we do not insist that pleural fluid INFcan re...

OBJECTIVES: Pleural effusion is a common diagnostic and clinical problem. The differential diagnosis of pleural effusion may be difficult and may require several procedures, including invasive ones. Certain studies have investigated biochemical parameters to facilitate the diagnosis of exudative pleural effusion; however, it remains a challenging problem in clinical practice. We aimed to invest...

The causes and situation of exudative pleural effusion vary from one area to another. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 327 patients with exudative pleural effusion in South Khorasan province (Iran). The patients were older than 12 years and comprised 172 (52.6%) males and 155 (47.4%) females. The study commenced in 2007 with seven years duration. The Light's criteria were used to define...

The value of determination of pleural fluid glucose, pH, lactic dehydrogenase, IgG, IgA, IgM, C3, C4, anti-IgG antibody, and hydroxyproline in distinguishing between pleural effusions caused by rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and those resulting from other diseases was studied. The series comprised seven patients with RA and 115 patients with other diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus, tub...

Tests for pleural tuberculosis are insensitive and expensive. We compared nonproprietary microscopic-observation drug-susceptibility (MODS) culture with Löwenstein-Jensen culture for evaluation of pleural specimens. MODS culture was associated with greatly increased diagnostic sensitivity and shorter time to diagnosis, compared with Löwenstein-Jensen culture (sensitivity of culture of biopsy sp...

Pleural fluid interferon-γ and tumour necrosis factor-α in tuberculous and rheumatoid pleurisy. T. Söderblom, P. Nyberg, A.-M. Teppo, M. Klockars, H. Riska, T. Pettersson. ©ERS Journals Ltd 1996. ABSTRACT: Tuberculous and rheumatoid pleural effusions show features suggesting a strong local cellular immune response. Pleural fluid (Pf) from patients with tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) an...

BACKGROUND Tuberculous pleural effusion occurs in 30% of patients with tuberculosis (TB). Rapid diagnosis of a tuberculous pleural effusion would greatly facilitate the management of many patients. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been used to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pleural fluid with highly variable sensitivity. OBJECTIVE To improve our laboratory diagnosis of tuberculous pl...

The levels of soluble IL-2R were measured in pleural fluid from patients with tuberculosis pleurisy. There were significantly elevated soluble IL-2R values in tuberculous pleural fluid as compared with pleural fluid of nontuberculous etiology including malignant, bacterial and transudative pleural effusions. In patients with tuberculous pleurisy, the level of soluble IL-2R in pleural fluid was ...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Evaluation of the combined use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity on the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis (pTB) in a region of high prevalence of tuberculosis. PATIENTS PCR and determination of ADA activity were performed on the pleural fluid of every patient presenting with pleural effusion suspected to be associated with tuberculosis....