Pleurisy - PubMed

Affiliations

• PMID: 17508531

Free article

Review

Pleurisy

Sara M Kass et al. Am Fam Physician. 2007.

Free article

Abstract

Pleuritic chest pain is a common presenting symptom and has many causes, which range from life-threatening to benign, self-limited conditions. Pulmonary embolism is the most common potentially life-threatening cause, found in 5 to 20 percent of patients who present to the emergency department with pleuritic pain. Other clinically significant conditions that may cause pleuritic pain include pericarditis, pneumonia, myocardial infarction, and pneumothorax. Patients should be evaluated appropriately for these conditions before an alternative diagnosis is made. History, physical examination, and chest radiography are recommended for all patients with pleuritic chest pain. Electrocardiography is helpful, especially if there is clinical suspicion of myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, or pericarditis. When these other significant causes of pleuritic pain have been excluded, the diagnosis of pleurisy can be made. There are numerous causes of pleurisy, with viral pleurisy among the most common. Other etiologies may be evaluated through additional diagnostic testing in selected patients. Treatment of pleurisy typically consists of pain management with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as specific treatments targeted at the underlying cause.

Similar articles

• Respiratory chest pain: diagnosis and treatment.

  Brims FJ, Davies HE, Lee YC. Brims FJ, et al. Med Clin North Am. 2010 Mar;94(2):217-32. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2010.01.003. Med Clin North Am. 2010. PMID: 20380952 Review.

• Acute pleuritic chest pain.

  Rashford S. Rashford S. Aust Fam Physician. 2001 Sep;30(9):841-6. Aust Fam Physician. 2001. PMID: 11676311

• Pleuritic Chest Pain: Sorting Through the Differential Diagnosis.

  Reamy BV, Williams PM, Odom MR. Reamy BV, et al. Am Fam Physician. 2017 Sep 1;96(5):306-312. Am Fam Physician. 2017. PMID: 28925655

• The emergency department utility of Simplify D-dimer to exclude pulmonary embolism in patients with pleuritic chest pain.

  Hogg K, Dawson D, Mackway-Jones K. Hogg K, et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2005 Oct;46(4):305-10. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2005.03.018. Ann Emerg Med. 2005. PMID: 16187460 Clinical Trial.

• Initial evaluation of chest pain.

  Boie ET. Boie ET. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2005 Nov;23(4):937-57. doi: 10.1016/j.emc.2005.07.007. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2005. PMID: 16199332 Review.

Cited by

• Cross-species transmission of a novel adenovirus associated with a fulminant pneumonia outbreak in a new world monkey colony.

  Chen EC, Yagi S, Kelly KR, Mendoza SP, Tarara RP, Canfield DR, Maninger N, Rosenthal A, Spinner A, Bales KL, Schnurr DP, Lerche NW, Chiu CY. Chen EC, et al. PLoS Pathog. 2011 Jul;7(7):e1002155. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002155. Epub 2011 Jul 14. PLoS Pathog. 2011. PMID: 21779173 Free PMC article.

• A rare cause of misdiagnosis in chest X-ray.

  Ortiz-Mendoza CM. Ortiz-Mendoza CM. J Family Med Prim Care. 2016 Jul-Sep;5(3):680-681. doi: 10.4103/2249-4863.197307. J Family Med Prim Care. 2016. PMID: 28217605 Free PMC article.

• Single-Cell Chromatin Accessibility Data Combined with GWAS Improves Detection of Relevant Cell Types in 59 Complex Phenotypes.

  Das AC, Foroutan A, Qian B, Hosseini Naghavi N, Shabani K, Shooshtari P. Das AC, et al. Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Sep 28;23(19):11456. doi: 10.3390/ijms231911456. Int J Mol Sci. 2022. PMID: 36232752 Free PMC article.

• Intrapleural delivery of mesenchymal stem cells: a novel potential treatment for pleural diseases.

  Qin ZH, Qu JM, Xu JF, Zhang J, Summah H, Sai-Yin HX, Chen CM, Yu L. Qin ZH, et al. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2011 May;32(5):581-90. doi: 10.1038/aps.2011.22. Epub 2011 May 2. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2011. PMID: 21532612 Free PMC article.

• Relapsing polychondritis: an unusual cause of sore throat, painful ear swelling and bilateral costal margin pain.

  Wang S, Chi C, Xu D, Ye Y. Wang S, et al. BMJ Case Rep. 2021 Feb 4;14(2):e238646. doi: 10.1136/bcr-2020-238646. BMJ Case Rep. 2021. PMID: 33541982 Free PMC article.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • American Academy of Family Physicians