Patient characteristics
| Characteristics | Overall | Urokinase | t-PA/DNAse | p-value |
| Patients | 93 | 52 | 41 | |
| Age years | 61.5±17.2 | 61.4±17.6 | 61.6±17 | 0.95 |
| Males | 63 (68%) | 39 (75%) | 24 (59%) | 0.09 |
| Right-sided effusion | 55 (59%) | 28 (54%) | 27 (66%) | 0.24 |
| Presence of lung cancer | 16 (17%) | 7 (13%) | 9 (22%) | 0.28 |
| Pleural fluid analyses | 93 (100%) | |||
| Positive bacterial culture | 33 (35%) | 16 (31%) | 17 (41%) | 0.28 |
| pH | 7±0.4 | 7±0.2 | 6.9±0.4 | 0.63 |
| Glucose mmol·L−1 | 3.5±8.1 | 3.9±9.9 | 2.8±4.4 | 0.59 |
| Lactate dehydrogenase IU·L−1 | 2217±2676 | 2447±3171 | 1912±1831 | 0.38 |
| Radiological findings | ||||
| Area occupied by effusion at baseline % | 39.4±19.6 | 38.8±20 | 40.1±19.4 | 0.76 |
| CT scan | 86 (92%) | 47 (90%) | 39 (95%) | 0.39 |
| Number of collections | 2.5±1.4 | 2.4±1.4 | 2.6±1.5 | 0.46 |
| Isolated if ≥2 collections | 39 (64%) | 22 (71%) | 17 (57%) | 0.24 |
| Drainage | ||||
| Image-guided procedure | 76 (82%) | 38 (73%) | 38 (93%) | 0.02 |
| Tube size French | 13.7±4 | 14.5±4.8 | 12.6±2.4 | 0.02 |
| Hospitalisation-to-drainage duration days | 3 (1–8) | 2 (0–7) | 3 (2–9) | 0.31 |
| Drainage-to-lysis duration days | 1 (0–2) | 1 (0–2) | 1 (0–2) | 0.23 |
Data are presented as mean±sd or median (interquartile range), unless otherwise stated. t-PA: tissue plasminogen activator; CT: computed tomography.