Objective: Tuberculous pleurisy (TP) is the second most common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis after tuberculous lymphadenitis and in developing countries it is one of the major causes of exudative pleural effusion. In this study, we aimed to retrospectively evaluate the mycobacteriological and histopathological results and demographic data of patients with suspect TP.

Method: Between January 2006 and February 2018; clinical, microbiological and histopathological features of 38 patients with TP were retrospectively evaluated. In addition to the culture method, considered to be the gold standard in the diagnosis of TP, cases with positive acid-fast bacilli (AFB) in their clinical specimens and/or cases that were diagnosed histopathologically as TP were included in this study.

Results: Of the 38 TP cases, 31 (81.6%) were culture positive (pleural fluid 39.5%; pleural tissue 42.1%), and chronic granulomatosis inflammation was detected in 30 (79%) cases (pleural fluid 31.6%; pleural tissue 47.4%) with histopathological examination. While 5 (13.1%) of the cases were positive only with culture and 3 (7.9%) were positive only with histopathological examination, 23 (60.5%) cases were found to be positive by both methods. Of these cases, 22 (57.9%) were male, 16 (42.1%) were female and the mean age was 43 (2-82) years. The most common symptoms among the cases were respiratory disorder, cough and chest pain.

Conclusion: In cases with pleural effusion, combined use of microbiological and histopathological diagnostic methods is thought to increase the diagnostic rate significantly.