Pleural Diseases

Thoracoscopy is usually carried out using rigid metallic instruments. Recently, video flex-rigid or semi-rigid thoracoscopes have been introduced. These have the advantage of easy maneuverability, although the biopsy samples are smaller as compared to those with rigid thoracoscopy. We have looked at the usefulness of flex rigid thoracoscope in the diagnosis and treatment of pleural diseases, remained undiagnosed after thoracentesis and closed biopsy. Retrospective analysis of data of patients who underwent thoracoscopy for the evaluation of pleural disease. Thoracoscopy was done in 21 patients using a flex-rigid thoracoscope in our institution. The indication was pleural effusion with inconclusive or negative pleural fluid cytology and blind pleural biopsy in 18 of the 21 patients. Thoracoscopic biopsy was positive in 12 of the 18 patients (66.7%). Of the six who had a negative biopsy, the procedure indirectly helped in patient management in five. There were no significant procedure...

Chest ultrasonography is a useful tool for assessing disease activity in the peripheral lung parenchyma, pleura, chest wall, diaphragm, and mediastinum. Ultrasound imaging also provides highly useful guidance in invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The main advantages of this imaging technology are the absence of ionizing radiation and the possibility of real-time bedside applications. The chief indications and limitations of chest ultrasonography and the principal sonographic signs are reviewed.

Ultrasound of the thorax is particularly rewarding in children, because their unique thoracic anatomy provides many available acoustic windows into the chest. Newer ultrasound techniques can allow better understanding of lung disease. With minimum effort and creativity, chest ultrasound can provide important clinical information without radiation exposure or sedation sometimes required for computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.

A study of the calculation of pleural effusion index (PEI) in patient with dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) has been conducted. PEI calculation was done through matlab programming language. Some digital image processing methods used in this research were thresholding segmentation, morphology operation, and calculation of pixel number per column in image to get PEI value. PEI values generated from image processing can be an alternative to replace the manual calculations done by physicians and used to demonstrate the gravity level of DHF.

Page 1. J Bras Pneumol. 2011;37(2):242-258 Ressonância magnética do tórax: Aplicações tradicionais e novas, com ênfase em pneumologia* Magnetic resonance imaging of the chest: Current and new applications, with an emphasis on pulmonology ...

BACKGROUND: Prospective assessment of pedicled extrathoracic muscle flaps for the closure of large intrathoracic airway defects after noncircumferential resection in situations where an end-to-end reconstruction seemed risky (defects of> 4-cm length, desmoplastic ...