Pleural effusion is excess fluid that accumulates between the two pleural layers, the fluid-filled space that surrounds the lungs. Excessive amounts of such fluid can impair breathing by limiting the expansion of the lungs during ventilation. Four types of fluids can accumulate in the pleural space:- 1.Serous fluid (hydrothorax)2. Blood (haemothorax) 3.Chyle (chylothorax)4.Pus (pyothorax or empyema) 1 Pleural effusion is usually diagnosed on the basis of medical history and physical examination, and confirmed by chest x-ray and ultrasonography. This is an open label, comparative, analytical, Interventional and prospective study was carried out on patients with signs and symptoms suggestive of pleural effusion, admitted in Dept. of Respiratory medicine, New Medical College and Hospital Kota, during a period of one year Oct. 2013 to Sept. 2014. The aim of our study to compare and evaluate the increased diagnostic pleural fluid aspiration with ultrasonography than chest radiography. We observed that on radiological examination 65% cases show evidence of pleural effusion while USG could diagnose 100% cases of effusion. In the 1st group (< 100 ml fluid) USG increases the average amount of pleural fluid aspiration to 70ml approx. Number of cases of therapeutic aspiration also increased in the 1st group by USG as compared to 5 cases by chest x[1]ray.In the 2nd group (101–200 ml fluid) of study cases, fluid aspiration increased by 3.2 times and number of cases also increased to18 by USG. In the 3rd group (> 200 ml) fluid aspiration increased by 2.45 times, and all the remaining failed cases of chest x-ray were aspirated under USG guidance. The number of patients for successful therapeutic thoracocentesis also increased by chest Ultrasonography.
