Pleural diseases.

摘要

Several years ago, a former colleague of mine asked me how one can make a career out of a potential space. I replied that the pleural space is a real space, although only several microns in width; it may provide the earliest or most prominent manifestation of a large number of disease states. Today, we are still attempting to learn more about the diagnosis and management of the vast number of diseases that involve the pleural space.This issue of Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine begins with a comprehensive review of the normal pleura and the pleura in disease states by Drs. Murali, Park, and Leslie, from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. Drs. Ayres and Gleeson, from Oxford Bio-medical Research Centre in the UK, then provide an extensive review of pleural imaging that includes a large number of instructive radiographs. Dr. Porcel, from Arnau De Vilanova University Hospital in Lleida, Spain, discusses the most common cause of a pleural effusion, congestive heart failure, and comments on pathophysi-ology, pleural fluid analysis, and the use of natriuretic peptides in the diagnosis.