A 50-year-old patient presenting with a pleural effusion with the following features: straw-like appearance, pH 7.3, pleural protein/serum ratio 0.8, pleural LDH/serum ratio 0.9, Gram and Ziehl's negative, total lipids, cholesterol and triglycerides normal, mesothelial cells <5%, intense lymphocytosis without atypia, ADA 64 U/L. What diagnosis would you suggest?
It is a lymphocytic exudate whose main diagnoses are tumor and tuberculous pleuritis. They do not give the value of glucose which should be lowered, but if the cytology shows absence of malignant cells so we are left with tuberculous pleuritis. Other possible diagnoses such as lymphoma are not mentioned in the answers.
Pleural empyema.
Pleural effusion due to heart failure (transudate).
Pleural mesothelioma.
Tuberculous pleural effusion.
Effusion secondary to pulmonary infarction.
It is a lymphocytic exudate whose main diagnoses are tumor and tuberculous pleuritis. They do not give the value of glucose which should be lowered, but if the cytology shows absence of malignant cells so we are left with tuberculous pleuritis.