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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Day #306 - TB Pleuritis


We discussed a great case of tuberculosis causing pleural effusion today. I have previously blogged about this before.

Previous blogs on pleural effusion here and here (including discussion of Light's Criteria and parapneumonic effusions/empyema).

Modified Light's Criteria (see review here):
  • Change LDH pleural fluid 0.45 ULN (increases sensitivity but reduces specificity)

Alternative tests:

  • LDH (0.45ULN), cholesterol (45mg/dl) and protein (29g/L) of pleural fluid, done in combination have similar performance characteristics to Light's criteria and don't require paired serum samples.

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