[Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia].

Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) is an uncommon condition of unknown etiology which often responds to corticosteroids. It is characterized by cough, patchy pulmonary infiltrations and intra-alveolar organizing fibrosis. We report a 45-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman with BOOP and elevated liver enzymes. Corticosteroid therapy led to complete recovery.

Bilateral localized Castleman disease of the retroperitoneum.

A case report of a 23-year-old patient with abdominal pain was found to have a bilateral, retroperitoneal localized form of Castleman disease. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first report of a bilateral form described in the literature. Surgical excision resulted in the disappearance of symptoms and both masses were found to be of the hyaline type. Follow-up computerized tomography revealed no pathological sequelae.

Haemoptysis as the sole presenting symptom of dissection of the aorta.

A 75 year old man who had had haemoptysis for 24 hours was found to have his left lower lobe compressed by a dissection of the aorta, which was otherwise symptomless.

Anatomical and computed tomographic studies of the pancreatic tail.

The location of the pancreatic tail in the lienorenal ligament and its relationship to the splenic hilus were studied in 32 computed tomography (CT) scannings and in 37 autopsy specimens. We found several anatomical variations in both study groups: the pancreatic tail did not penetrate the lienorenal ligament in 24% of the autopsy specimens and in 37.5% of the CT group. The tail was adjacent to the splenic hilus in 29.7% of the autopsies and in 25% of the CT group. We classified the anatomical variations into 4 categories, three of which could be well demonstrated on CT with satisfactory correlation to the anatomical findings of the autopsy specimens.