Aspiration biopsy of the parietal pleura

1.1. There is definite need for additional diagnostic procedures to help establish the etiology of pleurisy with effusion. 2.2. Aspiration biopsy of the parietal pleura is a safe, easy and accurate method of accomplishing this and may be extremely valuable in obtaining an early diagnosis. 3.3. In forty-five cases in which this procedure was utilized, diagnostic tissue was obtained in 73 per cent. 4.4. The histologic diagnosis of non-specific pleuritis does not eliminate the possibility of either tuberculosis or malignancy as the etiologic cause. In persons in whom this diagnosis is made after aspiration biopsy, an open biopsy should be performed if not contraindicated. 5.5. Aspiration biopsy was of considerable value in a group of patients suspected of tuberculosis, giving a definite tissue diagnosis in 83 per cent. 6.6. In eleven patients with pleurisy with effusion classified clinically as "indeterminate", aspiration biopsy of the parietal pleura yielded diagnostic tissue in 54 per cent. 7.7. The procedure is less useful in patients with malignancy with pleural involvement.