BACKGROUND: To explored the clinical, pathological, and bacteriological characteristics of pleural-based masses occurred during anti-tuberculosis (TB) treatment in patients with pleural TB.
METHODS: Patients referred with newly diagnosed pleural TB were prospectively enrolled into the study. Patients were followed up throughout the treatment, and clinical data were recorded. Percutaneous biopsy and surgical tissues from pleural-based masses were examined histologically and samples sent for PCR. Cytokines in the pleural effusions and clinical factors were collected and compared between different patients.
RESULTS: A total of 122 patients with pleural TB were enrolled, and 34.4% (42/122) displayed newly observed pleural-based mass during the treatment. Twelve cases underwent surgical resection at the 12 ± 0.5 months during the treatment course. Based on the surgical observation, 58.3% (7 /12) were located in pleura, 41.7% (5/12) were located in the lung parenchyma. Pathological observations showed that the pleural-based masses were typed as granulomatous inflammation, fibrous hyperplasia and necrosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis PCR was positive in 57.1% of the cases (24/42). Any first-line anti-TB drug resistance gene mutations were positive in only 9.5% (4/42). Aside from 12 cases who underwent the surgical operation, 86.7% of the patients (26/30) still had a pleural-based mass at the end of 12 months treatment course. Patients with a pleural-based mass were younger, had a thicker pleural, a higher proportion of pleural adhesive, loculated pleural effusion and residual pleural effusion, and a higher level of LDH, ADA and lower glucose in pleural effusion than those without a pleural-based mass occurrence during the treatment (all Pcorr < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Pleural-based masses were observed in about one-third of patients with pleural TB. The masses were in the lung or pleura and were divided into three pathological types.

The performance of T-SPOT.TB (T-SPOT) assay in diagnosing pleural tuberculosis (plTB) is inconsistent. In this study, we compared the performance of peripheral blood (PB) and pleural fluid (PF) T-SPOT assay in diagnosing plTB. Between July 2017 and March 2018, 218 and 210 suspected plTB patients were prospectively enrolled from Wuhan (training) and Guangzhou (validation) cohort, respectively. PB T-SPOT, PF T-SPOT, and other conventional tests were simultaneously performed. Our data showed the performance of PB T-SPOT in diagnosing plTB was limited, especially with low sensitivity. However, the results of early secreted antigenic target 6 (ESAT-6) and culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10) in PF T-SPOT were significantly increased compared with those in PB T-SPOT in plTB patients. If using 76 as the cutoff value of MAX (the larger of ESAT-6 and CFP-10) in Wuhan cohort, the sensitivity and specificity of PF T-SPOT to diagnose plTB were 89.76 and 96.70%, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of PF T-SPOT was better than other routine tests such as pathogen detection methods and biochemical markers. The diagnostic accuracy of PF T-SPOT in Guangzhou cohort was similar to that in Wuhan cohort, with a sensitivity and specificity of 91.07 and 94.90%, respectively. Furthermore, CD4+ T cells were more activated in PF compared with PB, and the frequency of mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific CD4+ T cells in PF was significantly higher than that in PB in plTB patients. In conclusion, the performance of PF T-SPOT is obviously better than PB T-SPOT or other laboratory tests, which suggests that PF T-SPOT assay has been of great value in the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: The confirmatory diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis (pTB) remains challenging. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of pTB patients and assess the yield of different diagnostic procedures in a low burden country with a high rate of immigrant population.
METHODS: All adult patients with pTB between 2007 and 2014 were studied retrospectively.
RESULTS: One hundred and three out of 843 patients with tuberculosis had pTB. Fifty-three (54.1%) were male, and the median age was 45years (range 18-87years). Fifty-two (50.49%) patients were immigrants. A confirmed diagnosis was reached in 16 patients (15.5%) by microbiological studies of pleural effusion. Lung involvement was demonstrated by sputum smear microscopy in 13/49 (26.5%), sputum GeneXpert MTB/RIF test in 13/20 (65%), and sputum culture in 16/37 (43.2%). High-resolution computed tomography (CT) showed lung involvement in 47.7% of the patients. The cure rate was 91.3% at the 1-year follow-up. Three patients died, all of them within the first month after diagnosis.
CONCLUSIONS: The detection of lung involvement increased by two-fold when lung CT was used; this correlated with the likelihood of finding a positive microbiological result on sputum sample testing. Pleural microbiological studies had a low diagnostic yield, and sputum could have a complementary role.