Respiratory Pastest Q

Question 1

Why is it important to pleural aspirate and discover what type of pleural effusion a patient has?

Answer 1

An exudative effusion would prompt a CT of the chest or thoracoscopy such as malignancy or TB.
A transudate effusion would prompt investigations such as an echocardiogram to look for heart failure, or liver imaging to look for cirrhosis.

Question 2

What are the two types of effusion and how do we tell the difference?

Answer 2

We determine whether it is exudate or transudate by protein content.