Anand S, Gothi D, Patro M, Deshmukh I. An interesting case of whitish pleural effusion: think beyond the obvious.
Breathe (Sheff) 2022;
18:210214. [PMID:
36338249 PMCID:
PMC9584554 DOI:
10.1183/20734735.0214-2021]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A 66-year-old male, never-smoker, who was a labourer by occupation presented to the outpatient department with the chief complaints of right-sided chest pain and dyspnoea for the past 1 month. The pain was dull aching, gradually progressive, increasing with respiration and relieved with analgesics. The dyspnoea was exertional, and gradual in onset. It had progressively increased from modified Medical Research Council grade 1 to 3. He did not have fever, cough, expectoration or wheeze. He had a past history of right-sided pleural effusion 3 years ago, for which he took anti-tubercular treatment (ATT) for 6 months and was declared cured, although he had no medical records from that time. On further probing, the patient gave a history of blunt trauma 5 years ago. He was hit by a buffalo on the right side of the chest at that time. He did not have any serious illness and instrumentation like central line insertion in the recent past. There was no history of any comorbidities or surgery.
A whitish pleural fluid calls for further biochemical and microbiological investigations beyond routine pleural fluid analysis as it decides the aetiology and management.https://bit.ly/3GwGpzS
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