Pleural Disease

 Pleural disease occurs in systemic sclerosis as a result of pleural effusions or fibrosis. Pleural effusions are uncommon in scleroderma in the absence of clinical congestive heart failure or interstitial lung disease, but have been reported in 15% of patients with an overlap syndrome  and scleroderma]. Thompson and Pope observed a few patients in his scleroderma population with significant pleural effusions that were not explained by other aetiologies. They hypothesized that pleural effusion may very well be more common than reported by previous literature and should be more prevalent in patients with diffuse compared to limited disease. Upon testing this hypothesis and excluding the index cases, his prospective case-control study found the presence of a pleural effusion in only one out of the 37 study patients, which is consistent with previous literature. The patient with the pleural effusion did have diffuse scleroderma. Scleroderma Lung Disease Other Lung Complications in Systemic Sclerosis: Maria do Socorro Teixeira Moreira Almeida journal of Pulmonary & Respiratory Medicine welcomes articles associated with "Pleural disease". Pleural tumors may be benign (i.e. solitary fibrous tumor) or malignant in nature. Pleural mesothelioma may be a sort of malignant cancer related to asbestos exposure. Under most other circumstances, pleural cancers are secondary malignancies related to carcinoma thanks to its nearby location or as metastasis like with carcinoma.