Value of medical thoracoscopy in diagnosis of pleural effusion of unknown aetiology in aged people / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the value of medical thoracoscopy in diagnosis of pleural effusion of unknown aetiology in aged people.Methods The patients aged 65 years and over,with exudative pleural effusion of unknown aetiology,were enrolled in this study.And they underwent medical thoracoscopy for diagnosis.Results The 49 patients,33 males and 16 females,aged 65-82years (at average age of 70.5 yeas),were enrolled.The 83.7% (41 cases) of pleural effusion was unilateral,and 16.3% (8 cases) was bilateral.The 28.6% (14 cases) of them suffered from tuberculosis,16.3 % (8 cases) malignant tumor.The pathology results of 16 cases showed nonspecific inflammation and normal pleural tissue.The other 10 patients showed a normal pleuracy or abnormal pleuracy undergoing a failure biopsy.Considering the clinical data of the 27 cases,8 cases (16.3 %)had infectious disease,18 cases (38.8%) remained unknown.Diagnostic accuracy of medical thoracoscopy was 61.2%.Complications of these patients undergoing medical thoracoscopy were fever (n=8,16.3%) and subcutaneous emphysema (n=7,14.3%).Conclusions Medical thoracoscopy is a standard option for diagnosing pleural effusion.It could be easily managed by physicians.The complications appear more often in aged people.