title: Pleural effusion: an "acoustic window" for sonography of pleural metastases.
abstract: We report the sonographic findings in 32 patients with malignant disease associated with pleural effusions diagnosed by chest roentgenograms. No tumor lesions were seen in any case on X-ray films. Thoracic sonography, however, detected previously undocumented metastatic disease with diaphragmatic (N = 19), parietal (N = 8), visceral (N = 2) or combined (N = 3) pleural involvement. Additionally, a distinction could be made between nodular lesions (N = 19), sheet-like tumor masses (N = 10), and combined (N = 3) tumor spread. In all cases thoracentesis was performed. Cytology showed malignant cells in 28 patients. Pleural metastasis was histologically confirmed by ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy in 2 cases. The present study demonstrates the value of scrutinized thoracic sonography in patients with pleural effusion for the detection of pleural metastases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Philipps University, School of Medicine, Marburg, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goerg
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Schwerk
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goerg
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Walters
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016066:Pleural Effusion, Malignant / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D010997:Pleural Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary*; D014463:Ultrasonography