Primary malignant melanoma of the lower airways is very rare. 24 cases have been collected over the past century. Our case was a patient of 52 years of age who had been discovered to have a tracheal tumour which was found to be a malignant melanoma and was treated with a Laser. The major problem is to establish that the tumour is primary. The combination of clinical evidence, paraclinical, subsequent outcome and in certain cases the autopsy enables the diagnosis of a primary tumour to be retained without having absolute certainty because a cutaneous melanoma can disappear after having metastasised.

Endoscopy↗

PubMed1989

[Eosinophilic pleural effusion].

Eosinophilic pleural effusion accounts for 5 to 10% of all clear liquid pleurisies. Its pathogenic significance is unclear and its relation to the causative diagnosis of pleural eosinophilia is diversely evaluated. In this study, 86 cases of eosinophilic pleural effusion observed at the Ariana Pneumophthisiology Hospital over a 5-year period are reviewed. At first aspiration, the proportion of pleural fluid eosinophils varied from 12% to 85% (54% on average). Blood eosinophilia was present in 60% of the patients. The main cause of effusion was tuberculosis (39.6%, but many other diseases were observed; despite numerous investigations, no cause could be found in 23.2% of the cases. The discovery of a pleural eosinophilia has an impact on the probable cause of the pleurisy, and this can be determined by applying Bayes' rule. The probability of tuberculous being the cause falls from 70.3% for clear liquid pleurisies generally to 44.6% for eosinophilic pleurisy. The probability of cancer as a cause falls from 4.5% to 0.66%; whereas that of "idiopathic" pleurisy rises from 13.5% to 59.56%. These findings are concordant with Adelman's conclusions. In other words, the finding of a pleural eosinophilia decreases the probability of tuberculous or malignant pleural effusion and increases the probability of benign or "idiopathic" effusion. Clinicians confronted with an eosinophilic pleural effusion should be particularly careful and accurate since this diagnosis may spare the patient an unnecessary exploratory thoracotomy and an unwarranted antituberculous treatment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

[Localized pulmonary amylosis: apropos of a case].

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Amyloidosis↗

PubMed1989

[Pneumomediastinum in dermatopolymyositis].

The authors report the occurrence of a pneumomediastinum occurring in a young female aged 25 who had already been under treatment for 3 years for dermatomyositis and who had a pulmonary involvement with fibrosis. This association did not seem fortuitous. The pneumomediastinum would be due to a cystic degeneration of the fibrosis producing "pseudoblebs".

Adult↗

PubMed1989