Cholesterol pleural effusion in rheumatoid lung disease.

AndrewsCholesterol pleural effusion is a rare condition.According to Moll and Fowweather (1940), Malaguti collected 44 cases from the literature up to 1929.However, I have been able to read only 39 case reports since the original by Churton in 1882, the majority being in the non-English literature.This paper describes a further two patients, who are of particular interest in that for the first time there is in one case a full post- mortem report with histological appearances and, in both, evidence that rheumatoid lung disease was an aetiological factor.CASE I P. D., a 39-year-old man employed as a semi-skilled loom mechanic, or tenter, developed rheumatoid arthritis in 1938.Two months before the onset of his arthritis he was said to have had a right-sided pneumonia.In 1951 he was admitted to Bridge of Earn Hospital for further treatment of the arthritis and was found to have a right-sided pleural effusion.Aspiration of this revealed numerous cholesterol crystals, the cell count being 65% lymphocytes and 35% polymorphs, while the fluid was sterile on