title: Clinical characteristics of the patient with nonspecific pleuritis.
abstract: To determine if patients with nonspecific pleuritis could be clinically distinguished from those with malignant or granulomatous pleural disease, the medical records and chest roentgenograms of all patients who had a closed needle biopsy of the pleura during a five-year period from January 1979 to December 1983 were reviewed. A total of 119 patients were categorized based upon their ultimate diagnosis as having malignant (n = 41), granulomatous (n = 25), or nonspecific pleuritis (n = 53). Weight loss, fever greater than 38 degrees, a positive PPD, a pleural fluid lymphocytosis of greater than 95 percent, and an effusion which occupied more than half a hemithorax were significantly more common in the patients with malignant or granulomatous disease. Based on these results, a conservative approach is recommended for the patient with an initial biopsy which reveals only nonspecific pleuritis who has none of the criteria, but an aggressive diagnostic work-up in the individual with two or more criteria is advocated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University Medical Center, Shreveport 71130-39.
authors.forename: W K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Leslie
authors.forename: G T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Kinasewitz
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006099:Granuloma / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010994:Pleura / Q000473:pathology; D010995:Pleural Diseases / Q000150:complications; D010996:Pleural Effusion / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D010997:Pleural Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D010998:Pleurisy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology