Plasma cell granuloma of lung.

K. W., a 28 year old white male, ship electrician, had suffered from persistant, moderately severe cough, productive of one ounce of semi-mucoid sputa from April to June 1951, and related one episode of minimal hemoptysis in June 1951. He had incurred no significant weight loss. While in the Canal Zone in June 1951, he was informed, following a pre-employment examination, that his chest film showed a tumor in the left pericardial region and a tuberculosis-like infiltrate in the left apex. He promptly returned to his home in Portland, Maine, and was studied while hospitalized there at the United States Public Health Service Hospital from July 10, 1951 to August 30, 1951. Gastric cultures for acid fast bacilli were negative. He remained on outpatient status for four months and was then admitted to the Tumor Clinic, United States Public Health Service Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland for excision of the tumor in the left lower thoracic cavity. Because preoperative sputas showed tubercle bacilli on smear and because it was felt prudent to obtain stabilization of the tuberculous process before attempting left thoracotomy, he was transferred to the U.S.P.H.S. Hospital, Manhattan Beach, New York, where he remained from February 15, 1952 to August 1952. The February 1952 chest x-ray film showed a normal right lung; in the left lung field were a fibro-exudative infiltrate in the first and second anterior interspaces and a large mass in the posterior inferior region of the pleural cavity. Tomograms revealed a small cavity in the apical-posterior segment of the left upper lobe. Streptomycin grams one every other day and PAS grams daily were begun February 20, 1952, INAH 300 mgm. daily started August 4, 1952 and these drugs have been maintained without interruption to the present time (January, 1953).