Pleural effusion is common in clinical practice and can gastrointestinal tract. To the best of our knowledge, a JOURNAL OF MEDICAL

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articlebe caused by over 60 pulmonary or systemic disorders. Clinical guidelines [1] and conventional texts [2] recom-mend that inspection of the fluid can provide useful in-formation: pus indicates empyema, milky fluids are likely to be chylous, blood suggests a haemothorax and food dark brown pleural effusion has not been described. Malignant pleural effusions are a common clinical problem, and a wide variety of malignancies can metas-tasise to the pleura. Papillary thyroid carcinoma is an uncommon cause of malignant pleural effusion, with only 10 cases in total reported in the literature [3-9], their physical characteristics rarely documented and their composition (for example thyroglobulin levels) sel-dom described. Iodine is an essential element in th