Highlighter is on. Drag to highlight text. Click a highlight to remove it.
ALL / Respiratory Medicine
Pleural effusion: causes
Pleural effusion: causes
Pleural effusions may be classified as being either a transudate or exudate according to the protein concentration.Transudate (< 30g/L protein)
- heart failure (most common transudate cause)
- hypoalbuminaemia
- liver disease
- nephrotic syndrome
- malabsorption
- hypothyroidism
- Meigs' syndrome
Exudate (> 30g/L protein)
- infection
- pneumonia (most common exudate cause),
- tuberculosis
- subphrenic abscess
- connective tissue disease
- rheumatoid arthritis
- systemic lupus erythematosus
- neoplasia
- lung cancer
- mesothelioma
- metastases
- pancreatitis
- pulmonary embolism
- Dressler's syndrome
- yellow nail syndrome
Features
- dyspnoea, non-productive cough or chest pain are possible presenting symptoms
- classic examination findings include dullness to percussion, reduced breath sounds and reduced chest expansion
+PassMedicine Notes
Pleural effusions may be classified as being either a transudate or exudate according to the protein concentration.
Transudate (< 30g/L protein)- heart failure (most common transudate cause)
- hypoalbuminaemia
- liver disease
- nephrotic syndrome
- malabsorption
- hypothyroidism
- Meigs' syndrome
- infection
- pneumonia (most common exudate cause),
- tuberculosis
- subphrenic abscess
- connective tissue disease
- rheumatoid arthritis
- systemic lupus erythematosus
- neoplasia
- lung cancer
- mesothelioma
- metastases
- pancreatitis
- pulmonary embolism
- Dressler's syndrome
- yellow nail syndrome
- dyspnoea, non-productive cough or chest pain are possible presenting symptoms
- classic examination findings include dullness to percussion, reduced breath sounds and reduced chest expansion
