[Clinical case of the month. Idiopathic mediastinal fibrosis]

Fibrosing mediastinitis is a rare condition characterized by an excessive growth of dense fibrous tissue within the mediastinum. The etiology of the disease is most often a fungal infection and may in some cases be idiopathic. We present the case of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suffering from fibrosing mediastinitis of undetermined origin and in whom the diagnosis was established by histopathological analysis after mediastinoscopy.

[Mycobacterium malmoense infection in an immunocompetent patient]

We report the case of a 57-year-old patient in whom we found a pulmonary infection due to Mycobacterium malmoense. This patient had no immunodeficiency and responded quite rapidly to anti-tuberculous therapy. He was treated for 6 months by levofloxacine, myambutol, and nicotibine, followed by 3 months of clarithromycine, levofloxacine and myambutol. The patient improved clinically to become asymptomatic and the cavitary lesion shown at the CT-scan slightly decreased. The patient is still currently treated by clarithromycine and ciproxine.