The objective of the study was to determine if residual pleural thickening
after treatment for
pleural tuberculosis could be predicted from the pleural fluid findings at the time of the initial thoracentesis. Forty-four patients initially diagnosed as having
pleural tuberculosis between January 1986 and January 1988 were separated into two groups: the 23 patients in group 1 had residual
pleural disease, while the 21 patients in group 2 had no residual
pleural disease after treatment for their
pleural tuberculosis was completed. The clinical characteristics of the two different groups did not differ significantly, but the patients in group 1 tended to be a little sicker in that the duration of their symptoms was longer, their
hemoglobin values were lower, and
weight loss and
cough were more frequent. There were no significant differences in the pleural fluid findings in the two different groups. The mean pleural fluid
protein level was 5.40 +/- 0.58 g/dl for group 1 and 5.17 +/- 0.80 g/dl for group 2, while the mean pleural fluid
glucose level was 78.6 +/- 19.5 mg/dl for group 1 and 79.5 +/- 20.1 mg/dl for group 2. The mean pleural fluid
lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level in group 1 was 593 +/- 498 IU/L, while the mean level for group 2 was 491 +/- 198 IU/L. The presence of residual pleural thickening was not related to the chemotherapeutic regimen or the performance of a therapeutic thoracentesis. From this study we conclude that approximately 50 percent of patients with
pleural tuberculosis will have residual pleural thickening when their
therapy is completed, but that one cannot predict which patients will have residual pleural thickening from either their clinical characteristics or their pleural fluid findings.