Two outbreaks of botulism associated with consumption of green olive paste, France, September 2011.

Two family outbreaks of botulism (a total of nine cases) were identified in south-east and northern France in early September 2011. The source of infection was considered to be a ground green olive paste. Botulinum type A toxin was identified in seven cases and in the incriminated olive paste.

[Clinically occult invasive cancers of the breast. Apropos of 136 cases].

Between 1978 and 1991, one hundred and thirty-six surgical excision biopsies were performed in our institution for clinically occult breast cancers. A retrospective analysis of histopathologic characteristics was carried out in order to determine the prognostic factors of these cancers detected by mammography. Mammographic findings consisted of microcalcifications alone (49 cases), microcalcifications with opacity (20 cases), stellate opacity (52 cases) and well-circumscribed opacity (12 cases).

[Laparoscopic hysterectomy. Results in 44 cases].

Laparoscopic hysterectomy is a recent procedure. We present our preliminary results about 44 patients. In 77.

[Post-menopausal endometriosis developed during tamoxifen treatment].

The authors report a case of endometriosis (adenomyosis + endometrioma) which occurred in a female patient aged 69 years, who had undergone the menopause 15 years previously and who had been taking Tamoxifen for 7 years as an adjuvant treatment for cancer of the breast. Tamoxifen, a non-steroidal anti-estrogen derived from diethylstilbestrol, has a variable antagonist/agonist so that estrogenic stimulation of the female genital tract may occur, particularly of the endometrial mucosa. The reactivation of the endometriosic foci which had become quiescent under the impact of the natural menopause, which, by iatrogenic analogy is included in the series of paradoxical uterine effects of tamoxifen.