ABSTRACT
Patients with chest lesions have been considered poor candidates for ultrasonographic examination because air-filled lungs and bony structures are not good media to transmit ultrasound (US) beams. With the rapid advances of transducer design, signal processing, and Doppler technology, great improvement has been achieved in imaging quality of sonography. The pleura, a relatively superficial structure, is easily accessible to sonography and has been examined by US since its early development (1-5). Since US gained recognition as a highly useful tool in the evaluation of pleural lesions, its role has expanded in imaging as well as in therapeutic goals, particularly in pleural fluid collection.
