IMAGES IN MEDICINE
"X marks the spot" is not a pleural guarantee
1 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Glenfield Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, UK
2 Department of Radiology, Glenfield Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to Dr A Medford, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Glenfield Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester LE3 9QP, Leicestershire, UK; andrewmedford@hotmail.com
Keywords: chest imaging; thoracic medicine; risk management; computed tomography; ultrasound
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Case history
A lady in her eighth decade with a history of left ventricular dysfunction and previous mitral valve replacement was admitted with a 2-month history of dyspnoea, ankle swelling and weight loss. She had signs of a moderate right-sided pleural effusion in addition to her expected cardiac signs. A thoracic ultrasound (TUS) was performed and a suitable site marked with the patient sitting erect (fig 1).
Figure 1 Thoracic ultrasound confirming moderate right effusion (depth 7.5 cm) with no loculations. Collapsed right lower lobe base is seen. Right hemidiaphragm, liver and dilated inferior vena cava are noted.
| |||||||||
A diagnostic tap was attempted on the next day with the patient sitting in the same upright position and at the site of the marked location (her warfarin having been stopped well before and switched to heparin cover appropriately). Heavily blood-stained fluid was aspirated and the procedure was stopped. She developed a much larger
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
