Down Syndrome ; complications ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Pleural Effusion ; complications ; congenital

OBJECTIVETo observe the clinical effect of central venous catheter in the treatment of refractory pleural effusion and pneumothorax.

METHODSPatients with coal workers' pneumoconiosis-tuberculosis complicated by pleural effusion or pneumothorax were randomly divided into central venous catheter group (48 cases, treated by chest drainage using a peripherally inserted central catheter) and conventional puncture group (56 cases, treated by conventional pleural puncture). Chemotherapy (DOTS strategy) was fully supervised, and both groups used 3HRZE/6HR (H, isoniazid; R, rifampicin; Z, pyrazinamide; E, ethambutol).

RESULTSIn the central venous catheter group, catheterization in the thoracic cavity was performed once in all cases, without fall-off; the mean total volume of pumped effusion was 3932±4430 ml; the time to disappearance of pleural effusion and pneumatosis was 10±2 d; 40 (83.33%) of the 48 cases were cured. In the conventional puncture group, the volume of pumped effusion was 2753±315 ml; the time to disappearance of pleural effusion and pneumatosis was 18±6 d; pleural puncture was performed twice in 4 cases, 3-4 times in 38 cases, and over 5 times in 10 cases, with an average of 3.8 times; 26 (46.43%) of the 56 cases were cured. The cure rate was significantly higher in the central venous catheter group than in the conventional puncture group (χ(2) = 7.59, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONFor pleural effusion and pneumothorax, PICC can be used instead of closed thoracic drainage and pleural puncture, and it has good clinical effect, causes little pain, and is easy to operate.

Anthracosis ; Catheterization ; Central Venous Catheters ; Drainage ; Humans ; Pleural Effusion ; complications ; therapy ; Pneumothorax ; complications ; therapy

Postoperative respiratory complications following scoliosis surgery are high incidence. In this case, fifty year-old male patient was admitted for thoracolumbar screw fixations and developed postoperative pulmonary edema. This was most likely due to prolonged administration of nicardipine, which over time may inadvertently cause hypotension. As a result of volume overload, interstitial pulmonary edema and pleural effusion occurred. Moreover, pulmonary edema and pleural effusion appeared on the right side first and spread to the left. This phenomenon could be explained by the positioning of scoliosis patient. The cause of pulmonary edema was volume overload initiated by prolonged effect of nicardipine.
Humans ; Hypotension ; Incidence ; Male ; Nicardipine ; Pleural Effusion ; Postoperative Complications ; Pulmonary Edema ; Scoliosis

Classical angiomyolipomas are benign tumors composed of various tissues, including fat, abnormal blood vessels and smooth muscle cells. The present study reports a male patient affected by mediastinal angiomyolipomas with massive chylous pleural effusion. The tumors were characterized with histological and immunohistochemical methods.
Angiomyolipoma ; complications ; Humans ; Male ; Mediastinum ; pathology ; Middle Aged ; Pleural Effusion ; diagnosis ; etiology

OBJECTIVETo introduce the early clinical features and the main points of diagnosis and treatment of children with pancreatic pleural fistula presenting massive bloody pleural effusion.

METHODThe clinical data of symptoms, signs, laboratory examination, diagnosis and treatment methods of pancreatic pleural fistula in a child are presented.

RESULTA 4-year-old boy presented with one month history of intermittent fever, cough, chest tightness and chest pain. His pleural effusion collected from three thoracic closed drainage was hemorrhagic. He had no positive abdominal signs. His abdominal B-mode ultrasonography showed rough pancreatic echo. The levels of amylase in blood and pleural fluid were 495 U/L and 35 938 U/L, respectively. There was a fistulous tract from the thoracic cavity leading to the pancreas at thoracic surgical exploration. The child was cured by total parenteral nutrition, intravenous infusion of somatostatin and a stent placed in the pancreatic duct by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).

CONCLUSIONThe child with pancreatic pleural fistula in early stage mainly present respiratory symptoms and lack abdominal symptoms, so the diagnosis and treatment is often delayed. Significant increase of pancreatic amylase level in pleural effusion can be an important clue and basis for the diagnosis. If conservative therapy fails, the examination and treatment with ERCP should be considered.

Child, Preschool ; Humans ; Male ; Pancreatic Fistula ; complications ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Pleural Effusion ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Recurrence

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection is common in developing countries, including Korea. It can be accompanied by extrahepatic complications such as renal failure, arthritis, and vasculitis. Pleural effusion is a very rare complication of HAV infection, which has been reported usually in children, and has benign clinical courses. Here we report a case of pleural effusion with ascites which occurred in an adult hepatitis A patient. A 26-year-old-woman presented generalized myalgia and fever and was diagnosed as acute hepatitis A. Despite of the improvement of laboratory findings, fever and cough persisted. Pleural effusion newly appeared on the serial chest radiologic images. After the fever settled down, the pleural effusion resolved spontaneously at 13th day of admission.
Acute Disease ; Adult ; Female ; Hepatitis A/complications/*diagnosis ; Humans ; Pleural Effusion/complications/*diagnosis/radiography ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Fibrinolytic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; complications ; Mesothelioma ; complications ; Pleural Effusion, Malignant ; drug therapy ; Streptokinase ; therapeutic use

Tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) leads to residual pleural opacity (RPO) in a significant proportion of cases. The aim of this study was to investigate which TPE patients would have RPO following the treatment. This study was performed prospectively for a total of 60 TPE patients, who underwent pleural fluid analysis on the initial visit and chest radiographs and computed tomography (CT) scans before and after the administration of antituberculous medication. At the end of antituberculous medication, the incidence of RPO was 68.3% (41/60) on CT with a range of 2-50 mm. Compared with the non-RPO group, the RPO group had a longer symptom duration and lower pleural fluid glucose level. On initial CT, loculation, extrapleural fat proliferation, increased attenuation of extrapleural fat, and pleura-adjacent atelectasis were more frequent, and parietal pleura was thicker in the RPO group compared with the non-RPO group. By multivariate analysis, extrapleural fat proliferation, loculated effusion, and symptom duration were found to be predictors of RPO in TPE. In conclusion, RPO in TPE may be predicted by the clinico-radiologic parameters related to the chronicity of the effusion, such as symptom duration and extrapleural fat proliferation and loculated effusion on CT.
Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Pleura/*pathology ; Pleural Effusion/*complications/radiography ; Prospective Studies ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Tuberculosis, Pleural/*complications/radiography

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical value of detecting carcinoembryonic antigen levels in pleural effusion (PCEA) and serum (SCEA) and their ratio (P/S) in the differential diagnosis of pleural effusions resulting from tuberculosis and lung cancer. METHODS: This retrospectively study was conducted among 82 patients with pleural effusion caused by pulmonary tuberculous (TB; control group) and 120 patients with pleural effusion resulting from lung cancer in our hospital between April, 2016 and March, 2018. PCEA, SCEA and P/S were compared between the two groups and among the subgroups of lung cancer patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SqCa), adenocarcinoma (ACA), small cell carcinoma (SCLC). The receiveroperating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was used to confirm the optimal critical value to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of different combinations of PCEA, SCEA and P/S. RESULTS: PCEA, SCEA and P/S were significantly higher in the overall cancer patients and in all the 3 subgroups of cancer patients than in the patients with TB ( < 0.05). The areas under the ROC curve of PCEA, SCEA and P/S were 0.925, 0.866 and 0.796, respectively; PCEA had the highest diagnostic value, whose diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, accurate rate, and diagnostic threshold were 83.33%, 96.34, 88.61%, and 3.26 ng/ml, respectively; SCEA had the lowest diagnostic performance; the diagnostic performance of P/S was between that of SCEA and PCEA, but its combination with SCEA greatly improved the diagnostic performance and reduced the rates of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. Parallel tests showed that the 3 indexes combined had significantly higher diagnostic sensitivity than each or any two of the single indexes ( < 0.05), but the diagnostic specificity did not differ significantly. The area under the ROC curve of combined detections of the 3 indexes was 0.941 for diagnosis of lung cancer-related pleural effusion, higher than those of any other combinations of the indexes. CONCLUSIONS The combined detection of PCEA, SCEA and P/S has a high sensitivity for diagnosis of lung cancer-related pleural effusion and provides important information for rapid and accurate diagnosis of suspected cases.
Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; analysis ; blood ; Case-Control Studies ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; blood ; complications ; Pleural Effusion ; blood ; diagnosis ; immunology ; Pleural Effusion, Malignant ; blood ; chemistry ; diagnosis ; ROC Curve ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary ; complications

Pseudochylothorax is an uncommon pleural effusion disease characterized by the presence of cholesterol crystals or high lipid content not resulting from a disrupted thoracic duct. Most of the cases reported so far had been found in patients with long-standing pleural effusion due to a chronic inflammatory disease such as old tuberculous pleurisy or chronic rheumatoid pleurisy. Authors encountered a case of pseudochylothorax in a 45-year-old man who had been treated for tuberculous pleurisy 6 years before his visit to authors' hospital. After that, he had visited the emergency department many times for removal of pleural effusion. The patient's chest X-ray revealed dyspnea and large left-sided pleural effusion. Although a large amount of pleural fluid was removed with a drainage catheter, massive pleural effusion was likely to recur, and the underlying lung was able to fully re-expand. Accordingly, decortication was done, and the patient's symptom was improved without postoperative complications.
Catheters ; Cholesterol ; Drainage ; Dyspnea ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Humans ; Lung ; Middle Aged ; Pleural Effusion ; Pleurisy ; Postoperative Complications ; Thoracic Duct ; Thorax ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pleural*