A massive hemorrhagic pleural effusion does not exclude the diagnosis of tuberculosis: a case report.

We report a case of an immunocompetent 18-year-old man with a massive hemorrhagic, exudative, lymphocytic pleural effusion. Blind transthoracic pleural biopsy showed granuloma formation, while the pleural fluid culture was positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, confirming the diagnosis of primary tuberculous pleuritis. A massive hemorrhagic pleural effusion is extremely rare in tuberculosis, but tuberculosis is a very protean disease and should always be included in the differential diagnosis of pleural effusions.