What is Pleural Thickening?
- The pleura - two layered protective membrane surrounding the lung
- The lungs - a pair of organs in the chest that control breathing.
They take in oxygen from the air that we breathe and remove carbon dioxide from
the blood
- Pleural thickening - thickening and hardening of the pleura
Pleural thickening occurs in 2 forms:
- Diffuse pleural thickening extends over a large area and may restrict expansion
of the lungs
- Pleural Plaques - localised areas of pleural thickening/calcification which
do not usually interfere with breathing
What causes Pleural Thickening?
Tiny asbestos fibres settle in the lung tissues
and irritate the pleura causing scarring and hardening.
The scarring is irreversible.
However, a number of other possible causes exist and pleural
thickening is less specific to asbestos exposure than
pleural plaques eg:
- Infections in the pleural space such as tuberculosis can cause
thickening of the pleura
- Inflammation of the pleura without infection can cause thickening
of the pleura eg same symptom of rheumatoid arthritis
- Injury. Pleural thickening can develop following injury to the
chest region such as bony fractures to the ribs
- Certain medications can cause thickening of the pleura, although
drug induced pleural thickening is generally quite uncommon. However,
a host of drugs that can cause thickening of the pleura do exist, eg Ergoline drugs
including bromocriptine and methysergide, often used to treat symptoms such as cluster
headaches, migraines and Parkinson’s disease
- Blood clot in the artery in the lung (pulmonary embolism). A pulmonary
embolism can interrupt blood supply to parts of the lungs causing the tissues to
die (necrosis). Pleural Thickening can occur as part of the healing process
- Radiation eg radiotherapy treatment can effect and thicken the
pleura of patient with lung cancer
- Tumours. Benign and malignant tumours may invade the pleura and
this gives the appearance of pleural thickening. The pleura is a very thin membrane
and is usually not visible on x-rays of the chest. Anything that increases the tissue
thickness of the pleura will appear on x-rays as pleural ‘thickening’. This can
occur when there is fibrosis of the pleura as in asbestos related pleural thickening
or when tumour tissue invades the pleura. Even simple inflammation of the tissue
cells may cause infiltration of the pleura and result in the thickening of the membrane
Find out more on Pleural Thickening
Download our guide to pleural thickening to find out more information
on symptoms, diagnosis and treatments.
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