Table 2—

Clinical outcome after intrapleural injection treatment

	Group			p-value
	Free-flowing	Streptokinase	Saline	p-value
Subjects n	20	22	22
Clinical outcome
CXR improvement at 3 days %	81.8±21.7	75.2±16.0	60.8±23.1*^,#	0.011
Complete drainage at 3 days n (%)	12 (60)	2 (9)**	0 (0)**	<0.001
Time to dyspnoea relief days	3±2	3±2	5±3**^,##	0.018
Time to defervescence days	3±2	2±2	3±2	0.219
Pleural drainage L
Initial	1.26±0.69	0.77±0.49*	0.72±0.56*	0.009
After first injection (24 h)	0.58±0.39	0.58±0.45	0.28±0.36*^,#	0.024
After second injection (24 h)	0.41±0.62	0.27±0.29	0.14±0.25	0.114
After third injection (24 h)	0.15±0.36	0.20±0.29	0.10±0.19	0.527
Total after three injections (72 h)	1.13±1.18	1.05±0.86	0.57±0.67	0.104
Total	2.36±1.62	2.59±1.77	1.28±1.21*^,##	0.016
Duration of drainage days	5±1	5±2	4±1*^,#	0.012
Time from treatment to discharge days	7±3	7±2	10±6*^,#	0.022

Data are presented as mean±sd, unless otherwise indicated. CXR: chest radiography. *: p<0.05 and **: p<0.01 versus free-flowing group; ^#: p<0.05 and ^##: p<0.01 versus streptokinase group.