-
- S J Jay.
- Postgrad Med. 1986 Oct 1; 80 (5): 181-8.
AbstractBased on the current literature, the following steps seem reasonable in evaluating a pleural effusion: document the presence, location, and approximate volume of pleural fluid; decide clinically on the likelihood of an exudative effusion; if clinical evaluation suggests an exudative effusion, perform a thoracentesis and obtain fluid for diagnostic evaluation; perform the necessary tests to characterize the effusion as a transudate or an exudate; if a transudate exists, normally do not perform further tests on the effusion; if an exudate exists, perform selected tests to narrow the differential diagnosis; if this evaluation is undiagnostic, consider closed pleural biopsy; if the diagnosis remains unclear after two closed biopsies, consider pleuroscopy with biopsy or open pleural biopsy at the time of a thoracotomy.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*,_underline_or**bold**. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>and subscript<sub>text</sub>. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3., hyphens-or asterisks*. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com) - Images can be included with:
 - For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote..