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pleura |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.04 sec. |
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pleura (pl r`ə), membranous lining of the upper body cavity and covering for the lungs lungs, elastic organs used for breathing in vertebrate animals, excluding most fish, which use gills , and a few amphibian species that respire through the skin. The word is sometimes applied to the respiratory apparatus of lower animals...... Click the link for more information. . The pleura is a two-layered structure: the parietal pleura lines the walls of the chest cage and covers the upper surface of the diaphragm, and the pulmonary pleura, or visceral layer, tightly covers the surface of the lungs. The two layers, which are in fact one continuous sheet of tissue, are generally connected to each other. In humans, the pleural cavity is further separated into left and right sides by the heart and pericardial cavity. There is normally a slight amount of watery fluid within the pleural cavity that lubricates the pleural surfaces and allows the lungs to slide freely over the inner surface of the thoracic wall during breathing. When a lung collapses or develops an infection, a condition known as pleurisy can develop. The pleura becomes inflamed, and the pleural cavity becomes noticeably larger. Pleurisy can be extremely painful, but can be medically eradicated in many cases. Mesothelioma is a tumor of the pleura seen most frequently in asbestos asbestos, common name for any of a variety of silicate minerals within the amphibole and serpentine groups that are fibrous in structure and more or less resistant to acid and fire. Chrysotile asbestos, a form of serpentine , is the chief commercial asbestos. ..... Click the link for more information. workers. |
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A chest radiograph showed progression of the infiltrates, and a computed tomography scan of the abdomen and chest showed infiltrates near the pleura, suggesting encapsulated fluid (Figure). 1) The first report of this tumor was published in 1931 by Klemperer and Rabin, who described such a lesion that had arisen from the pleura. This was also shown in studies with ultrafine PTFE fumes: shortly after a 15-min exposure, the fluorine-containing particles could be found in interstitial and submucosal sites of the conducting airways as well as in the interstitium of the lung periphery close to the pleura (Oberdorster G 2000). |
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