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Pleural Effusion

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Pleural effusion:
While the soft tissues of the thoracic wall demonstrate a complex pattern when reflecting sound waves, due to the numerous soft tissue interfaces within them, pure fluid such as that seen in a simple transudative pleural effusion provides an US image that is free of echoes and very easy to identify. For this reason, ultrasonography is perhaps the ideal modality for imaging pleural effusions.(9-11,20,80)
The sonographic appearance of a pleural effusion depends on its nature, cause, and chronicity. Pleural effusions can be classified on the basis of their sonographic characteristics according to whether they are echoic or totally anechoic, and whether they have septa (thick or thin and mobile) and/or pleural nodules. Ultrasonography has been shown to be more sensitive …show more content…
In a patient with pleural fluid, there is continued visualization of the vertebral bodies from the abdomen into the thoracic cavity. US is known to be more sensitive than chest radiograph in the diagnosis of small pleural effusions and is usually obvious by the loss of mirror image artifact and visualization of an anechoic area above the diaphragm. In cases where the echogenicity of the pleural fluid is variable (complicated effusion, empyema or clotted blood), the "thoracic spine sign" can aid the bedside sonographer in confirming the presence of pleural fluid. (Fig. 16.) (88)
When scanning a typical patient in a supine position using a low frequency sector probe in the coronal/longitudinal plane, laterally on the torso at the level of the diaphragm, one is able to clearly see the typical sonographic pattern of the vertebral bodies caudal to the diaphragm. This series of intermittent echogenic foci with acoustic shadows is visible because sound waves are transmitted to the vertebral bodies by the acoustic windows of the liver (or spleen) and

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