[OPTIMIZATION OF DIAGNOSTICS OF EXUDATIVE PLEURITIS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN].

The article describes 143 cases of exudative pleuritis of unknown origin in patients who were diagnosed and treated with any minimally invasive surgical procedures: pleural puncture (PP), video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) with biopsy of the pleura. A different diagnostic methods (cytological, microbiological, histological) used in various diagnostic surgical procedures are analyzed in detail and calculated diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of each method. Based on the analysis of cytological, histological and microbiological studies in the performance of VATS concluded relatively high, comparable with the method of open pleural biopsy, diagnostic efficiency, the sensitivity of this method in the scheme of the diagnostic algorithm of EP of unknown origin.