open access
A young non-smoker with high ADA pleural effusion. It’s not always tuberculosis
open access
Abstract
Lung cancer is posing an ever-increasing medical and social problem due to its increasing morbidity and mortality. Here we report a case of a young male who was being treated as tubercular pleural effusion but was ultimately diagnosed with non-small cell carcinoma. While considering the diagnosis of pleural effusion, in the context of country endemic for tuberculosis like India, it is not surprising that many clinicians rather prefer to consider pulmonary tuberculosis as the first differential, while keeping diagnosis of malignancy as the least likely differential diagnosis in the young patient.
Abstract
Lung cancer is posing an ever-increasing medical and social problem due to its increasing morbidity and mortality. Here we report a case of a young male who was being treated as tubercular pleural effusion but was ultimately diagnosed with non-small cell carcinoma. While considering the diagnosis of pleural effusion, in the context of country endemic for tuberculosis like India, it is not surprising that many clinicians rather prefer to consider pulmonary tuberculosis as the first differential, while keeping diagnosis of malignancy as the least likely differential diagnosis in the young patient.
Keywords
lung cancer; young; tuberculosis; ADA


Title
A young non-smoker with high ADA pleural effusion. It’s not always tuberculosis
Journal
Advances in Respiratory Medicine
Issue
Article type
Clinical vignette
Pages
464-465
Published online
2020-10-24
DOI
10.5603/ARM.a2020.0144
Pubmed
Bibliographic record
Adv Respir Med 2020;88(5):464-465.
Keywords
lung cancer
young
tuberculosis
ADA
Authors
Gopal Chawla
Amrit Pal Kansal
Kunal Deokar


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