RESUMEN
Background: Pleural effusion is one of the most common signs seen in respiratory pathologies. An attempt to establish commonetiologies underlying pleural effusion helps in effective management of the same.Materials and Methods: After obtaining proper informed consent, patients presenting with pleural effusion underwent clinicalexamination in addition to radiological and biochemical investigations. Where needed, the diagnosis was confirmed usingpleural biopsy and bacteriological analysis.Results: Investigations confirmed tuberculosis in 23 patients, malignancy in seven cases, congestive cardiac failure in fourcases, parapneumonic causes in 12 patients, hypoproteinemia in two patients, and pulmonary thromboembolism in two patients.Conclusion: The present findings show that tuberculosis is the most common cause of pleural effusion in our patients. A morecomprehensive study would help us to further strengthen our findings.
RESUMEN
Background: Acoustic shock injury has been described as a permanent injury to the auditory system either due to daily noise dose of in excess of 85 decibels or very loud impulse sound reputed to be in excess of 120 decibels and acoustic incidents. This study was performed to compare the results of audiogram and the newer diagnostic method distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) parameters due to acoustic shock injury in call center professionals working in a noisy environment and prone to acoustic injury. Materials and Methods: Hearing functions of 340 subjects were first assessed with pure tone audiometry and then DPOAEs results were compared among acoustic shock exposed subjects with normal audiogram and those with abnormal audiogram. Results: Out of 340 acoustic shock exposed subjects 304 were normal on audiometric testing and 34 had abnormal audiograms. Subsequently on DPOAE testing out of 304 acoustic shock exposed subjects with normal audiogram 125 failed and 181 passed. Conclusions: This study showed that DPOAEs are more sensitive than audiometry to detect pre-symptomatic inner ear damage. It may play a role as screening and monitoring test for acoustic shock-exposed workers.