What does the word Pleuritis mean?
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May be acute or chronic. Perhaps the most violent of all internal inflammations is the active form; known by acute, lancinating pain in one side of the chest, increased by inspiration, by coughing, and often by pressure; dyspnoea, the inspirations short and frequent; cough dry, or with little expectoration; and difficulty of lying on the affected side. Symptoms, attending the phlegmasiae in general, strongly marked. Physical Signs. There is seldom any perceptible alteration in the exterior of the chest. When effusion has taken place to a great extent, the signs will be similar to those of chronic pleurisy. The motion of the affected side is diminished, and the vibrations of the voice cannot be detected by the hand. There is more or less dulness of sound on percussion, the dulness diminishing or disappearing by change of position. On auscultation, the inspiration is feeble, distant, or inaudible; but change of position modifies it. Egophony is usually present, when the effusion is in moderate quantity, and is best heard over a portion of the thoracic parietes, represented by a band of three inches, running from below the inferior margins of the scapula in the direction of the ribs to the sternum. Simple pleurisy rarely attacks both sides at once: when such is the case, the presence of tubercles may be suspected. Formerly, a true pleurisy meant one seated in the pleura: a, mediastinal pleurisy, one situated in the anterior mediastinum; and false pleurisy or rheumatism al pleurisy, that which occupies the intercostal muscles. The last has received the name Pleurodyn'ia; that of pleurisy being exclusively appropriated to inflammation of the pleura. Pleurisy has also been distinguished into dry and humid, according as it is or is not accompanied by expectoration. Humid or moist pleurisyis now properly regarded as a complication of pleurisy with pulmonary catarrh. It is the catar'rhal pleurisy of some. The majority of the species of pleurisy, admitted by Sauvages, consist of complications. The causes of pleurisy are like those of other internal inflammations. It may terminate by resolution, effusion, or suppuration.
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