[Methodology and the clinical importance of the ultrasound method in diagnosing exudative processes in the pleural cavity].

The authors describes the technique and data of ultrasound examination of 32 patients with exudative processes of different etiology in the pleural cavities. It was shown that using echography one can detect the minimal volumes of intrapleural fluid inaccessible for visualization with the conventional methods of radiodiagnosis, and to reveal the signs of the marginal and total lung atelectasis. In patients with pleural empyema, one could see the thickening of the pleural layers, dissection of the purulent contents in the pleural cavity. Study over time of the foci of structural nonuniformity of the intrapleural contents in patients with acute serofibrinous pleurisy made it possible to follow the processes of formation, retraction and organization of fibrin clots to intrapleural adhesions. The intrapleural adhesions formed were detected echographically in the overwhelming majority of the test subjects, including 4 out of 10 patients with accumulation of the fluid in the pleural cavities because of decompensation of congestive circulatory failure.