1. Physiology of the pleura / Sotirios Zarogiannis and Kostas I. Gourgoulianis -- 2. Pathophysiology of the pleura / Veena B. Antony -- 3. Respiratory function in pleural effusion / Ioanna Mitrouska and Dimitris Georgopoulos -- 4. Imaging of the pleura / Theresa C. McLoud, Gerald F. Abbott, and Katerina Malagari -- 5. Ultrasonography of the pleura / Ok-Hwa Kim and Kyung Joo Park -- 6. Diagnostic thoracocentesis and biopsy / Andreas Diacon and Chris Bolliger -- 7. Chest tubes / Demondes Haynes and Michael H. Baumann -- 8. Interventional radiology of pleural disease / Johny A. Verschakelen -- 9. Medical thoracoscopy / Philippe Astoul -- 10. Therapeutic use of thoracoscopy for pleural diseases / Pierre-Emmanuel Falcoz, Pascal Thomas, and Gilbert Massard -- 11. Pleurodesis / Francisco Rodriguez-Panadero -- 12. Translational research in pleural diseases / Georgios T. Stathopoulos, Joost P.J.J. Hegmans, and Y.C. Gary Lee -- 13. Clinical evaluation of the patient with a pleural effusion / Steven A. Sahn -- 14. Discrimination between transudative and exudative pleural effusions : evaluating diagnostic tests in the pleural space / John E. Heffner -- 15. Transudative pleural effusions / Udaya B.S. Prakash -- 16. Management of the undiagnosed persistent pleural effusion / Richard W. Light -- 17. Drug-induced pleural involvement / Philippe Camus, Clio Camus, and Philippe Bonniaud -- 18. Parapneumonic pleural effusions and empyema / Demosthenes Bouros -- 19. Medical thoracoscopy in the management of parapneumonic pleural effusions and empyema / Gian Franco Tassi and Gian Pietro Marchetti -- 20. Postsurgical pleural infection / Lesek Purek, Marc Licker, and Jean Marie Tschopp -- 21. Surgical management of empyema / Dean M. Donahue and Douglas J. Mathisen -- 22. Tuberculous pleuritis / Biswajit Chakrabarti and Peter D.O. Davies -- 23. Pleural effusions secondary to fungal, nocardial, and actinomycotic infection / Mark Woodhead and Iain Crossingham -- 24. Malignant pleural effusions / Steven A. Sahn --

25. Diagnosis and management of pleural effusion in lung cancer / Marios E. Froudarakis -- 26. Benign tumors of the pleura / Cameron D. Wright and Eugene J. Mark -- 27. Malignant pleural mesothelioma / Charles-Hugo Marquette, Antoine Delage, Philippe Astoul, and Arnaud Scherpereel -- 28. Extrapleural pneumonectomy for early-stage diffuse malignant pleural mesothelioma / Lambros Zellos and David J. Sugarbaker -- 29. Benign asbestos-related pleural disease / E. Brigitte Gottschall and Lee S. Newman -- 30. Pleural manifestations of interstitial lung disease / Robert P. Baughman -- 31. Immunological diseases of the pleura / Katerina M. Antoniou, Demosthenes Bouros, and Athol U. Wells -- 32. Pleural effusions in blood diseases / Despina S. Kyriakou, Michael G. Alexandrakis, and Demosthenes Bouros -- 33. Pleural effusions in HIV / Kristina Crothers and Laurence Huang -- 34. Pleural effusions in cardiac disease / John F. Murray -- 35. Pleural effusions in pregnancy and gynecological diseases / Katerina M. Antoniou, Nikolaos M. Siafakas, and Demosthenes Bouros -- 36. Pleural effusions in the intensive care unit / Ioannis Pneumatikos and Charis Roussos -- 37. Pleural effusions in gastrointestinal tract diseases / Epaminondas N. Kosmas and Vlasis S. Polychronopoulos -- 38. Pleural effusions in pulmonary embolism / Luis Puente-Maestu and Victoria Villena -- 39. Pleural effusions in children / John N. Tsanakas and Elpis Hatziagorou -- 40. Pneumothorax / Charlie Strange -- 41. Hemothorax / Paul E. Van Schil, Philippe G. Jorens, and Patrique Segers -- 42. Chylothorax and pseudochylothorax / Michael Toumbis -- 43. The pleural space and organ transplantation / Marc A. Judson and Steven A. Sahn -- 44. Pleural disease as a complication of radiotherapy and radiofrequency ablation / Jose M. Porcel -- 45. Iatrogenic and rare pleural effusions / Georgios Kouliatsis and Demosthenes Bouros.