Abstract

Pleural effusion is accumulation of excess amount of fluid in the pleural space. Pleural effusion is often a secondary effect of another disease process eg. Congestive heart failure, hepatic cirrhosis, nephrotic syndrome, myxoedema, connective tissue disorders. The second most common form of extra pulmonary tuberculosis is Pleural Tuberculosis. It is caused by the immune system response to the presence of mycobacterial antigens in the pleural space, generating inflammation and causing fluid to accumulate. Methodology- The study was conducted at the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, tertiary care centre on the patients with pleural effusion. Duration of the study was from August 2016 to January 2018. 200 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in the study. A detailed clinical history and general physical examination was done on all the patients. Pleural fluid analysis was done by appropriate distribution of fluid sample. Patients were divided into 3 groups i.e. Group A, Group B and Group C. Genexpert test was done for nucleic acid amplification, and detection of the target sequences from the received samples. Result- Mean age of the study subjects were 37.04±16.87 years with more than 55% of patients were present in age group of 21-40 years. Cough was the most common symptom of presentation observed in 60% of patients, followed by fever (50.5%) chest pain (52%), breathlessness (50.5%), weight loss (22.5%), expectoration (11%) and haemoptysis (6.5%). Conclusion- Tuberculosis was the most common cause of pleural effusion followed by malignancy. The Genexpert assay had low sensitivity but high specificity.

Description