Disseminated Mycobacterium kansasii infection with pulmonary alveolar proteinosis in a patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia.

A 64-year-old woman with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) was admitted due to prolonged fever and lung infiltrates. An open lung biopsy was required to make the diagnosis of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) and infection with Mycobacterium kansasii. She was treated successfully with combined antimycobacterial therapy for 14 months.

Pleural effusion with splenic rupture as manifestations of recurrence of sarcoidosis following prolonged remission.

A 55-year-old man presented with a 3-week history of dry cough and left pleuritic chest pain with a new exudative pleural effusion. Sixteen years earlier, he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis presenting with hilar lymphadenopathy, erythema nodosum, mildly disturbed liver function tests and noncaseating granulomata on liver biopsy, with no evidence of pulmonary parenchymal disease. He was treated with prednisone and in recent years maintained at a low daily dose, until it was eventually discontinued two years prior to his present illness.

Closed pleural needle biopsy: predicting diagnostic yield by examining pleural fluid parameters.

Objective: Pleural fluid parameters that predict a diagnostic closed pleural needle biopsy were investigated.

Design: A retrospective analysis.

Setting: The Institute of Pulmonology, Hadassah University Hospital.

Invasive airway aspergillosis with new airflow obstruction mimicking post-BMT bronchiolitis obliterans.

A 52-year-old male with severe gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), developed dyspnea and irreversible airflow obstruction, 11 weeks post-allogeneic bone marrow stem cell transplantation. Based on the clinical picture and presence of 'mosaic attenuation' pattern on chest high-resolution computerized tomography (HRCT), he was presumed to have bone marrow transplantation-related bronchiolitis obliterans. Post-mortem examination revealed invasive airway aspergillosis with no evidence of bronchiolitis obliterans.

The use of oral pilocarpine in xerostomia and Sjögren's syndrome.

Objectives: To analyze the role of oral pilocarpine in the treatment of xerostomia of Sjogren's syndrome (SS).

Methods: The medical literature was reviewed for all studies using oral pilocarpine to treat xerostomia caused by SS or radiotherapy registered in the MedLine Silver Platter database from 1966 to 1998.

Results: All the studies identified excluded elderly individuals with cardiac or pulmonary disease.