Diagnostic value of thoracoscopy for pleural effusion caused by lymphoma

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of thoracoscopy in pleural effusion caused by lymphoma. Methods The endoscopic characteristics and clinical manifestations of 6 patients with lymphoma diagnosed by thoracoscopy in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University from 2013 to 2018 were retrospectively analyzed, and the related literature was reviewed. Results The thoracoscopic findings and clinical features of the 6 patients were lack of specificity, which were mainly characterized as pleural multiple nodules (n=5), and/or accompanied by pleural adhesion (n=3), partition (n=1), pleural hypertrophy (n=1) or pigmentation (n=1). All patients were accompanied with pulmonary lesions and exudative pleural effusion, including 3 cases of unilateral and 3 cases of bilateral pleural effusion, 4 cases of hemorrhagic pleural effusion and 2 of non-hemorrhagic pleural effusion. All the 6 patients were diagnosed as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Conclusion Lymphoma has diverse clinical manifestations. Most of the lymphoma patients with pleural effusion are non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Since the thoracoscopic findings are quite different and positive rate of thoracoscopic pleural biopsy is quite high, this procedure is irreplaceable for diagnosis.

Keywords

• lymphoma
• medical thoracoscopy
• pleural effusion