Premium
Clinical Importance of Echogenic Swirling Pleural Effusions
Author(s) -
Lane Alison B.,
Petteys Sarah,
Ginn Meghan,
Nations Joel A.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of ultrasound in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1550-9613
pISSN - 0278-4297
DOI - 10.7863/ultra.15.05009
Subject(s) - medicine , thoracentesis , echogenicity , pleural effusion , effusion , radiology , pleural fluid , pathology , ultrasound , surgery
Thoracic sonography is an important tool in diagnosis and assessment of pleural effusions and can provide valuable information about the characteristics of accumulated pleural fluid, in addition to improving the safety of thoracentesis. In addition to the 4 classic sonographic pleural effusion patterns (anechoic, complex nonseptate, complex septate, and homogeneously echogenic), an echogenic swirling pattern has been previously described, which was originally thought to be associated with malignant effusion. Two cases of pleural effusion with an echogenic swirling pattern are described below, illustrating that this sonographic finding can be seen in both exudative and transudative effusions.