scholarly journals Role of Ultrasound in Determining the Nature of Pleural Effusion

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-37
Author(s):  
N Agarwal ◽  
HM Kansal ◽  
SK Bhargava

Purpose of the study: The differentiation of pleural effusion into transudate and exudate may affect the diagnostic approach and patients’ management. The conventional Light criteria require both pleural fluid and blood samples along with three biochemical tests. This study was undertaken to assess the usefulness of ultrasound as an alternative in differentiating the type of pleural effusion. Method: A prospective cross sectional study was conducted over a period of one year. Eighty patients clinically diagnosed to have pleural effusion underwent high frequency ultrasound and also lab tests for Light criteria. The efficacy of ultrasound was then assessed in differentiating transudate from exudate. Results: It was concluded in our study that all pleural effusions which were echogenic on ultrasound, with or without septations or with pleural thickening more than 3 mm (n=46) were exudates (p< 0.01). The anechoic effusions on ultrasound could be transudates or exudates. Conclusion: Ultrasound acts as a useful non invasive alternative for determining the type of pleural effusion. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njr.v4i1.11367 Nepalese Journal of Radiology, Vol.4(1) 2014: 34-37

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-350
Author(s):  
Dr. Girish.L Dandagi ◽  
◽  
Venkat kalyana kumar. P ◽  
Dr. Dr.Isaac Mathew ◽  
Dr. Dr.G S Gaude Dr. Dr.G S Gaude

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Caforio ◽  
S Gianstefani ◽  
A Baritussio ◽  
R Marcolongo ◽  
M Seguso ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Sarcoidosis is an immune-mediated disease; cardiac involvement, a granulomatous form of myocarditis, is under-recognised and prognostically relevant, as it can present with significant morbidity and mortality. Anti-heart autoantibodies (AHA) and anti-intercalated disk autoantibodies (AIDA) are reliable autoimmune markers in non-sarcoidosis myocarditis forms. Purpose The aim of this study was to assess the potential role of serum AHA and AIDA in cardiac sarcoidosis. Methods This is a cross-sectional study on a series of 29 patients with biopsy proven extra-cardiac sarcoidosis and with biopsy-proven or clinically suspected cardiac involvement, who were tested for AHA and AIDA. Patients were recruited in two recruiting tertiary centres, in USA and Italy. AHA and AIDA were detected by indirect immunofluorescence on human myocardium and skeletal muscle. Controls included sera from patients with non-inflammatory cardiac disease (NICD) (n=160), with ischemic heart failure (IHF) (n=141) and normal blood donors (NBD) (n=270). Results The frequencies of AHA and of AIDA were higher in sarcoidosis (86%; 62%) than in NICD (8%; 4%), IHF (7%; 2%), NBD (9%; 0%) (p=0.0001; p=0.0001 respectively). Sensitivity and specificity were: 86% and 92% for positive AHA and 62% and 98% for positive AIDA, respectively (see figure). Figure 1 Conclusions The detection of serum AHA and AIDA in biopsy-proven or clinically suspected cardiac sarcoidosis supports the involvement of heart-specific autoimmunity in the majority of our cases and may provide a novel non invasive diagnostic marker.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-31
Author(s):  
Elina Shrestha ◽  
Narayan Bikram Thapa ◽  
Shankar Bahadur Singh Rajbhandari

Introduction: Proptosis is defined as bulging of eye anteriorly out of the orbit. Our main objective was to analyze the pattern of computerised tomographic findings in evaluation of proptosis. Computerised tomography (CT) is noninvasive, easily accessible, affordable and reliable imaging which helps in early diagnosis and prompt treatment. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study of total 58 patients presenting with proptosis referred to our department of radiology for computerised tomography evaluation during one year period were undertaken into study. The clinical information provided by ophthalmologist also helped our study to derive into conclusion. SPSS version 20 software was used for statistical data analysis. Results: Out of 58 patients, the most common cause of proptosis was neoplasm constituting of 25 cases (43.1%). Retinoblastoma was the commonest orbital tumor. Out of remaining cases, 15 (25.8%) were infective, 14 (24.1%) were inflammatory, two (3.44%) were traumatic and remaining two cases (3.44%) had no definitive cause for proptosis. Bilateral proptosis was commonly associated with thyroid ophthalmopathy. Among the subjects 32 were male, 26 were female. Male: Female ratio was 1:1.23. Age group was ranging from 1 month to 73 years.Mean age was 26.4 ± 22 years. Conclusions: Computerised tomography has an important role in distinguishing the different types of lesions based on their characteristics, location and extension prior to undertaking definitive surgical and medical treatment. Overall accuracy of CT in our study was 81%, sensitivity of 82.6%, specificity of 80.6%, positive predictive value of 76% and negative predictive value of 86.2%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 3674
Author(s):  
Fernando Andrade ◽  
Ainara Cano ◽  
María Unceta Suarez ◽  
Arantza Arza ◽  
Ana Vinuesa ◽  
...  

Phenylketonuria (PKU), an autosomal-recessive inborn error of phenylalanine (Phe) metabolism is the most prevalent disorder of amino acid metabolism. Currently, clinical follow-up relies on frequent monitoring of Phe levels in blood. We hypothesize that the urine level of phenylacetylglutamine (PAG), a phenyl-group marker, could be used as a non-invasive biomarker. In this cross-sectional study, a validated liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was used for urinary PAG quantification in 35 participants with hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA) and 33 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. We have found that (a) PKU patients present higher urine PAG levels than healthy control subjects, and that (b) there is a significant correlation between urine PAG and circulating Phe levels in patients with HPA. In addition, we show a significant strong correlation between Phe levels from venous blood samples and from capillary finger-prick dried blood spot (DBS) samples collected at the same time in patients with HPA. Further research in order to assess the potential role of urine PAG as a non-invasive biomarker in PKU is warranted.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 2537
Author(s):  
Praveena D. L. ◽  
Shashi M. Uppin ◽  
S. S. Shimikore

Background: Diabetes mellitus-related foot ulceration is very common. Several classification systems for diabetic foot ulcers have been proposed. The present study was intended to assess the role of Wagner wound classification in predicting the outcome of diabetic foot ulcer and also know the grade of Wagner’s classification to which majority of diabetic foot ulcer patients.Methods: This present one year cross sectional study was carried out at the Department of General Surgery. A total of 100 patients with diabetic foot ulcer who presented during the study period were included. The diabetic foot ulcers were graded according to the Wagner’s classification. The relative risk of amputation in different grades of diabetic foot ulcer based on Wagner classification was determined.Results: In this study majority of the patients were males (79%) and the male to female ratio was 3.76:1. The mean age was noted as 55.8±10.45 years. Majority of the patients had duration of ulcer less than one month (88%). Surrounding skin was inflamed in 60% of the patients, necrosis was present in 40% and slough was noted in 98% while 44% of the patients had necrotic tissue. Based on Wagner’s Classification, most of the patients (48%) had Grade II diabetic foot ulcers. With regard to management, in 44% of the patients’ debridement was done and 36% of the patients had disarticulation or amputation in 36%. Of the 48 patients with grade II ulcer, 79% of the patients had healing without amputation. Of the 58 patients with grade I and II diabetic foot ulcers, 82.76% had healing without amputation compared to 17.24% of the patients who needed amputation. Patients with Grade III, IV and V had 3.59 times higher risk of amputation compared to patients with grade I and II. (p<0.001; 95% CI- 1.95 to 6.62).Conclusions: Grading of diabetic foot ulcer based on Wagner’s classification affects and predicts the outcome and the risk of amputation increases with increasing grade. Most of the patients admitted for diabetic foot ulcers in our hospital belonged to Wagner’s grade II (48%).


2004 ◽  
Vol 43 (152) ◽  
pp. 79-82
Author(s):  
D K Baskota ◽  
RCM Amatya ◽  
RP Shrivastav ◽  
BK Sinha

A prospective, analytical and cross-sectional study to find out the role of contact with tuberculous patientsduring the process of development of Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis was currently carried out in theDepartment of ENT- Head & Neck Surgery of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital Kathmandu, Nepal.Altogether 103 cases of histopathologically confirmed cases of Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis of morethan six weeks of duration were included in the study during the period of one year from March, 2000 toFebruary, 2001.History of contact with tuberculous patients in the past during the development of the disease process wasfound to be positive in 19(18.4%) of the 103 cases. In rest of the 84 cases history of contact with tuberculouspatients was found to be negative (81.6%).The result of this study so far indicates that there is a minimal role of contact with tuberculous patients forthe development of tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis. Although tuberculosis is known as a chroniccommunicable disease, in our study majority cases of Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis did not give anyhistory of contact with tuberculous patients in the past.Key Words: Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis, tuberculous patients, communicable disease.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Taro Kusama ◽  
Jun Aida ◽  
Tatsuo Yamamoto ◽  
Katsunori Kondo ◽  
Ken Osaka

Abstract Pneumonia is a leading cause of death among older adults. The effectiveness of oral care in preventing pneumonia in nursing homes and hospitals has been reported. However, in community-dwelling older adults, the role of denture cleaning in preventing pneumonia remains unknown. We aimed to investigate the association between infrequent denture cleaning and the risk of pneumonia in community-dwelling older adults. This cross-sectional study was based on the self-reported questionnaire targeting towards community-dwelling older adults aged ≥65 years. Responses of 71,227 removable full/partial denture users were included. The incidence of pneumonia within the last one-year and the frequency of denture cleaning (daily/non-daily) were treated as dependent and independent variables, respectively. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated by the inverse probability weighting (IPW) method based on the logistic regression model. The mean age of the participants was 75.2 ± 6.5 years; 48.3% were male. Overall, 4.6% of the participants did not clean their dentures daily; 2.3% and 3.0% who did and did not clean their dentures daily, respectively, experienced pneumonia. After IPW, infrequent denture cleaning was significantly associated with pneumonia incidence (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.01–1.68)). This study suggests that denture cleaning could prevent pneumonia among community-dwelling older adults.


Author(s):  
Praveen Radhakrishnan ◽  
S Mathanraj

Introduction: Pleural effusions, the result of the accumulation of fluid in the pleural space, are a major diagnostic problem due to its anatomical nature with no direct access. There is variation in management, depending on the pleural disease. The pleural effusion can either exhibit specific or nonspecific characteristics. Aim: To determine the clinical significance and diagnostic role of pleural fluid C-Reactive Protein (CRP) level in the aetiological diagnosis of exudative pleural effusion. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study performed during the study period of September 2013 to December 2014. A total of 53 Patients identified with pleural effusion were recruited in the study and pleural fluid was subjected for the measurement of CRP level. Pleural fluid CRP was assessed with CRP-Turbilatex-Quantitative turbidimetric immunoassay method which is based on the principle agglutination reaction. The data was subjected to statistical analysis using Epi info software version 3.4.3. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to illustrate the diagnostic ability. The smallest cut-off value was the minimum observed test value minus 1, and the largest cut-off value was the maximum observed test value plus 1. All the other cut-off values were the averages of two consecutive ordered observed test values. Results: Among the 53 patients in the study, 42 had exudative effusions (79.20%) and 11 had transudative effusions (20.80%). The common cause of exudative effusion was tuberculosis 26 (61.90%), followed by 9 malignancy (21.40%) and 7 parapneumonic effusion (16.70%). In our study, the pleural fluid CRP was statistically significant (p<0.001) marker to differentiate exudative effusions with CRP-value <30 suggestive of malignancy, CRP-value 30-50 mg/L suggestive of tuberculosis and CRP-value >70 mg/L suggestive of parapneumonic effusions. Conclusion: Determination of pleural fluid CRP is a useful diagnostic marker for differentiating exudative and transudative effusions. Also, Pleural fluid CRP is a statistically significant marker in differentiating tubercular effusions from nontubercular exudative effusions.


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