CLINICAL OBSERVATlONS ON PLEURISY WITH EFFUSlON

Abstract

A clinical study was made on 166 cases of pleurisy with effusion seen at the Kyungpool University Hospital from January 1960 to February 1965, and the pertinent data were reviewed. Tuberculosis accounted for 53.0 percent of the cases and in 9.0 percent the cause of pleurisy was undetermined. Except for tuberculosis, the principal etiologic factors in order of frequency were malignancy, pneumonia, lung abscess, pulmonary paragonimiasis and amebic liver abscess. The mean age of patients with malignant pleural effusion was 48, while non-malignant effusion, it was below 40 regardless of the nature of underlying disease. Right-sided pleural effusion was more common than left-sided in all kinds of pleurisy, except in pneumonic pleurisy in which no particular predilection was noted. Serous pleural effusion accounted for 51.7 percent of the cases, purulent 25.2 percent and serosanguineous 23.1 percent 32.4 percent of the cases with serosanguineous pleural effusion was tuberculous and 38.2 percent was malignant in origin. In tuberculous pleurisy diagnosis was proved only in about 20 percent of the cases by either needle biopsy of the pleura or bacteriological examination of the pleural fluid. In malignant pleurisy cancer cells were positive in the pleural fluid in about 47 percent of cases examined, but histological diagnosis was made in about 70 percent by needle biopsy of the pleura.