Clinical Utility of Polymerase Chain Reaction for the Diagnosis of Smear-negative Pleural Tuberculosis

occurs early in life, tuberculous pleurisy with effusion follows the primary infection within weeks or months. The pathogenesis is rupture of a subpleural component of the primary infection and delivery of tubercle bacilli into the pleural space, with inflammation and seeding of foci over the visceral and parietal pleura. In the past, this affected mostly adolescents and young adults. More than 50% of patients not treated with appropriate anti-TB medication will develop active TB within 5 years. 3,4 An increasing proportion of pleurisy with