Diagnosis of occult meat aspiration by fiberoptic bronchoscopy.

Cytologic examination of bronchial washings from a patient with a persistent localized pulmonary infiltrate revealed large numbers of striated muscle fibers. The patient died shortly after bronchoscopy, and postmortem examination provided evidence of recurrent aspiration pneumonias. Since skeletal muscle fibers are not likely to enter the tracheobronchial tree from any endogenous source, it is proposed that this unusual cytologic finding is virtually diagnostic of recent food aspiration.

A pseudoepidemic of Legionella infections.

During a six-month period, we observed an increase in the incidence of presumed Legionnaires' disease (LD) due to false-positive direct immunofluorescent antibody (DFA) staining. Contamination of the DFA staining reagents with Legionella appeared to account for our pseudoepidemic. Although a positive DFA stain has been regarded as highly specific for the diagnosis of LD, the clinician must interpret such results with caution.