An uncommon infectious cause of pleural effusion

Abstract

Lymphatic filariasis is one of the major public health problems across the globe. Clinical manifestations usually depend on the site of lymphatic involvement. A 21-year-old female resident of a non-endemic filarial region presented with axillary lymphadenopathy, bilateral pleural effusion, ascites and pedal oedema. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of axillary lymph nodes revealed microfilariae. On the administration of diethyl carbamazine, lymph nodes gradually disappeared, the patient improved symptomatically and the filarial antigen test after treatment was negative. We report this case of bilateral axillary lymphadenopathy with pleural effusion and ascites as a rare manifestation of filariasis.

Filariasis presenting as isolated pleural effusion: A case report and mini review

“…A retrospective search of the PUBMED database revealed 19 cases being reported after the year 2000 (Table 1). 2,3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Of these, the majority were young to middle aged (median age 36 years; range 5-74 years) males (M:F ¼ 12:7), implying working age more exposed to the disease vector. 2,19 Breathlessness, inevitably, was the most common presenting symptom with a median duration of four weeks (range 10 days-8 months).…”

“…A retrospective search of the PUBMED database revealed 19 cases being reported after the year 2000 (Table 1). 2,3,5–18 Of these, the majority were young to middle aged (median age 36 years; range 5–74 years) males (M:F = 12:7), implying working age more exposed to the disease vector. 2,19…”

“…þ À Pregnancy Not known 3 Marathe et al 7 30/M 0.5 Left S þ þ Not known 4 Roy et al 8 35/M B/L þ À Not known 5 Patil et al 9 48/F 1 Right H þ þ Malignancy Improved 6 Marwah et al 10 30/M 0.5 Left S þ þ Improved 7 Menon et al 11 22/M 1 Left S þ þ Improved 8 Garg et al 12 70/F 1.5 Right S þ À Tuberculosis Improved 9 Singh et al 13 60/F 2 Right H þ þ Malignancy Improved 10 Aggarwal et al 14 21/F 1 B/L S À À Disseminated disease Improved 11 Navaz et al 15 70/M 6 Right H þ À Malignancy, post CABG Improved 12 Handa et al 2 36/M 0.25 Right S þ À Not known 41/F 033 Right S þ þ Not known 13 Chakraborty et al 16 28/M 0.33 Left H þ þ Hydropneumo thorax Improved 14 Shukla et al 17 58/M Left Improved 15 Pal et al 18 38/M 0.75 Right S þ þ Improved 16 Chaturvedi…”