Abstract
Introduction We present findings from the International Collaborative Effusion database, an ERS clinical research collaboration. Non-specific pleuritis (NSP) is a broad term that describes chronic pleural inflammation. Various aetiologies lead to NSP, which poses a diagnostic challenge for clinicians. A significant proportion of patients with this finding eventually develop a malignant diagnosis.
Methods 12 sites across 9 countries contributed anonymised data on 187 patients. 175 records were suitable for analysis.
Results The commonest aetiology for NSP was recorded as Idiopathic (80/175, 44%). This was followed by pleural infection (15%), benign asbestos disease (12%), malignancy (6%) and cardiac failure (6%). The malignant diagnoses were predominantly mesothelioma (6/175, 3.4%) and lung adenocarcinoma (4/175, 2.3%). The median time to malignant diagnosis was 12.2 months (range 0.8–32). There was a signal towards greater asbestos exposure in the malignant NSP group compared to the benign group (0.63 versus 0.27, p=0.07). Recurrence of effusion requiring further therapeutic intervention, nor initial biopsy approach were associated with a false negative biopsy. A computed tomography finding of a mass lesion was the only imaging feature to demonstrate a significant association (0.18 versus 0.01, p=0.02), though sonographic pleural thickening also suggested an association (0.27 versus 0.09, p= 0.09).
Discussion This is the first multi-centre study of NSP and its associated outcomes. Whilst some of our findings are reflected by the established body of literature, other findings have highlighted important areas for future research, not previously studied in NSP.
Footnotes
This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.
Conflict of interest: Coenraad F.N. Koegelenberg declares honoraria for lectures from AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, in the 36 months prior to manuscript submission.
Conflict of interest: All other authors declare no competing interests.
This is a PDF-only article. Please click on the PDF link above to read it.
- Received November 8, 2022.
- Accepted January 4, 2023.
- Copyright ©The authors 2023
This version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0. For commercial reproduction rights and permissions contact permissions{at}ersnet.org
