Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Detected on Ultrasound

Our plain-English summary of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Detected on Ultrasound, by P. Escudero-Acha, D. Ferrer Pargada, A. González-Castro (Archivos de Bronconeumología, 2020).

The study

• Authors: P. Escudero-Acha, D. Ferrer Pargada, A. González-Castro
• Journal: Archivos de Bronconeumología
• Published: 2020;56(12):815
• Language: Spanish
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a short 'clinical image' article, written in Spanish, showing one chest ultrasound image from one patient. The article gave no details about the patient, such as age, sex, work history or asbestos exposure, and it did not mention asbestos at all. The image caption described a pleural effusion (fluid around the lung) and thickening of the pleura (the lining around the lungs). The authors wrote that on ultrasound one can see irregular, sometimes nodular, pleural thickening together with a significant pleural effusion, and that this appearance characterizes malignant pleural mesothelioma. In this patient, the diagnosis was later confirmed by examining tissue under the microscope (histology). In their commentary, the authors stated that chest ultrasound has a complementary role and that CT scanning is the main imaging method for diagnosing the disease. Because this is a single image from one case, it shows what was seen in one person. It does not show how often ultrasound detects this cancer, and it gives no information about causes.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: clinical image (single-case illustration with brief commentary)
• Who was studied: one patient whose chest ultrasound image is shown; no age, sex, occupation, location of care or exposure history is reported
• Main results:
  • The figure for this patient is captioned as an ultrasound image of pleural effusion and pleural thickening
  • The authors wrote, as a general description, that ultrasound can show irregular, sometimes nodular, pleural thickening associated with a significant pleural effusion, and that this characterizes malignant pleural mesothelioma
  • In this patient, malignant pleural mesothelioma was later identified on histological study
• The authors' conclusion: The authors stated that chest ultrasound has a complementary role and that CT is the main imaging modality in diagnosis

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pleural Mesothelioma, Ultrasound.

Related studies

• Ultrasound-guided medical thoracoscopy in the absence of pleural effusion — G. Marchetti, A. Valsecchi, et al. (2015)
• Analysis of "dry" mesothelioma with ultrasound guided biopsies — J.A. Stigt, J.E. Boers, et al. (2012)
• Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration in a patient with pericardial mesothelioma — H. Ashinuma, M. Shingyoji, et al. (2015)
• Diagnostic usefulness of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration in a case with malignant pleural mesothelioma — J. Hamamoto, D. Notsute, et al. (2010)
• Benign cystic peritoneal mesothelioma incorrectly diagnosed as an ovarian borderline mucinous tumor of intestinal type at transvaginal preoperative ultrasound evaluation — A.C. Testa, G.F. Zannoni, et al. (2011)
• Subcutaneous seeding after ultrasound-guided placement of intrapleural catheter. An unusual complication of the intracavitary palliative treatment of pleural mesothelioma — S. Sartori, I. Nielsen, et al. (1999)

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