Pleural Diseases

A prospective multicenter randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of thoracoscopic biopsy guided by confocal optical real-time microscopic imaging (nCLE) in the diagnosis of fibrinal pleurisy of unknown etiology. Patients with fibrinous pleurisy of unknown etiology who were to undergo thoracoscopic pleural biopsy were enrolled and informed consent was signed. Subjects were randomized to either the nCLE guided biopsy Group (Group A) or the visual biopsy group (Group B) according to the randomization table (1:1 ratio). nCLE was used to probe the benign and malignant status of pleural lesions, compare the consistency of random pathological biopsy or nCLE guided biopsy with histopathological results, compare whether nCLE guided biopsy can reduce the number of thoracoscopic biopsies, and follow up short-term postoperative complications to evaluate its safety.

Seventy (N=70) patients with suspected pleural mesothelioma (PM) lesions referred to pleural biopsy will be recruited, and undergo an additional FAPI PET/CT at primary staging. The FAPI PET/CT results will be compared to conventional imaging (including FDG PET/CT). The diagnostic accuracy will be determined with histopathology as reference standard. For patients undergoing anticancer treatment (chemotherapy, immunotherapy, other treatment), an additional FAPI PET/CT and an additional FDG PET/CT will be conducted after the study subjects have completed 2-3 series of anticancer treatment. The feasabilitiy of FAPI PET/CT in response evaluation will be investigated. All study specific analyzes will be blinded and will not influence the patient management / treatment.

This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy, safety, and clinical outcomes of thoracoscopic pleural biopsy in the management of pleural diseases.

We designed and developed a novel dual-function semirigid thoracoscope (UE FET-680; UE Corporation, Zhejiang, China) with a straight channel adapted to flexible and rigid forceps for pleural biopsy. Our preclinical trial has proven that the dual-function semirigid thoracoscope has larger and deeper sampling while retaining the entire thoracic accessibility and flexible bronchoscopic maneuvering habits of the semirigid thoracoscope. We designed this study to directly compare the diagnostic yield, quality of sampling, and safety between the dual-function semirigid thoracoscope and semirigid thoracoscope.

The SPEEDTAP-trial is a prospective, randomised, investigator-initiated, multicenter, clinical superior trial investigating two thoracentesis methods in four emergency departments (ED) in Central Denmark Region. Patients are randomised to either manual fluid removal in the ED or passively fluid drainage using gravity in the radiology department (standard of care). Primary outcome: time from clinical indication to complete drainage and 188 patients will be included. Key secondary outcomes include length of stay, ED admission to ED discharge and safety end-points.

To investigate the information from shear-wave elastography on pleural tissues will improve the diagnosis of pleural diseases, as to increase the diagnostic yield in ultrasound-guided transthoracic pleura biopsy.