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Up to 30% of lupus patients will have serositis at some point. Nonetheless, in lupus patients who present with pleural effusion, causes other than serositis — for example, infection, malignancy, pulmonary embolism, congestive heart failure (CHF), and nephrotic syndrome — must always be considered. In patients without known lupus, serositis may signal this disorder.
Researchers evaluated 253 pleural-fluid samples collected randomly from 1710 patients with pleural effusion who underwent thoracentesis at a hospital in Spain. Only 4 of the patients met American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for lupus. The investigators also examined 13 samples from patients with known lupus. The causes of pleural effusions were determined by well-establ…