title: Normal volume and cellular contents of pleural fluid.
abstract: The pleural space in healthy humans was thought to contain a few milliliters of fluid, based on extrapolation from animal studies. However, because of the obvious technical difficulties in atraumatically retrieving such a small volume of fluid, the exact volume and cellular content of human pleural fluid has not been known. Development of a minimally invasive pleural lavage technique has allowed, for the first time, the measurement of volume and cellular content of the pleural fluid in healthy humans.
authors.affiliation: Academic Hospital Vrÿe Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium. marc.noppen@az.vub.ac.be
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noppen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001826:Body Fluids / Q000166:cytology*; D004285:Dogs; D006801:Humans; D010994:Pleura / Q000166:cytology*; D011817:Rabbits; D012016:Reference Values; D012756:Sheep; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation