[Being diagnosed with COPD: A qualitative study of real life experience].

Introduction: This qualitative study aimed to explore the real life experience of the patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at the time they receive the diagnosis.

Methods: Data were collected using face to face interviews in general practice as well as focus groups in a pulmonary rehabilitation centre.

Results: Thirty-four patients participated in the study.

[Pulmonary intravascular talcosis: A case report].

Introduction: Pulmonary intravascular talcosis is a rare condition occurring in intravenous drug users injecting oral medications. Talc results in a foreign-body granulomatous reaction giving a radiological haematogenic miliary appearance mimicking miliary tuberculosis. Drug users represent a population at risk for both these conditions and their distinction may be challenging.

[The presence of mycobacteria in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from an immunocompetent patient does not necessarily imply tuberculosis].

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the most frequently identified mycobacterium in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of immunocompetent patients. Lung infections due to non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are rare in such patients and then often occur in the context of pre-existing chronic lung disease. We report the case of an immunocompetent 85-year-old woman without pre-existing lung disease in whom M.