TB
The Crashing Patient with Cardiac Tamponade…
Cardiac tamponade is compression of the chambers of the heart and impedance of venous return leading to decreased cardiac output.
TB or not TB…that is the question
Does this patient have an exudative pleural effusion? The Rational Clinical Examination systematic review.
Wilcox ME, Chong CA, Stanbrook MB, Tricco AC, Wong C, Straus SE.
JAMA. 2014 Jun 18;311(23):2422-31. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.5552.
“The diagnosis of an exudate was most accurate if cholesterol in the pleural fluid was greater than 55 mg/dL (LR range, 7.1-250), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was greater than 200 U/L (LR, 18; 95% CI, 6.8-46), or the ratio of pleural fluid cholesterol to serum cholesterol was greater than 0.3 (LR, 14; 95% CI, 5.5-38). A diagnosis of exudate was less likely when all Light’s criteria (a ratio of pleural fluid protein to serum protein >0.5, a ratio of pleural fluid LDH to serum LDH >0.6, or pleural fluid LDH >two-thirds the upper limit of normal for serum LDH) were absent (LR, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.02-0.11).”