Demographic Study of Pleural Effusion in a Tertiary Care Centre

Background: Pleural effusion is a common problem encountered day in and day out of hospitals and clinics worldwide. Pleural effusion affects approximately one million people every year. It can present either as complication of diseases or as their presenting features. The pleural space normally contains between 7 to 16 ml of fluid. When the rate at which formation of pleural fluid is more than the rate of removal accumulation of pleural fluid takes place. The categorization of the same as exudates and transudates is crucial to make the right diagnosis and manage accordingly. The most commonly used method is Light?s criteria. Objective: To study the demographic pattern of pleural effusion and common cause of transudate and exudate in study population. Methods: A total of 101 subjects presenting with pleural effusion in the outpatient and emergency departments of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi were taken in the observational study. Pleural fluid samples obtained by diagnostic thoracocentesis were subjected to biochemical studies, namely pleural fluid protein measured by Biuret method, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) measured by Reflective Spectrophotometric assay, Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) by Adazyme kit. The classification of pleural fluid into transudates and exudates based on the lights criteria. Results: The study analyzed that 74.26 % were males and 25.74 % were females. According to the Light?s criteria, 54.46% were found to be exudates and 45.54% transudates.Mean value for age in exudate group was 39.56 years & transudate group was 54.59 years. Maximum number of exudates fall in the age group of 20-30years whereas maximum transudates had fallen in the group of 51-60 years. Most common cause of transudate in our study was Chronic liver disease whereas most common cause of exudate turned out to be tuberculosis.