[Thoracic and abdominal actinomycoses. Anatomo-pathologic study of 5 cases]

The authors report 5 cases and study the thoracic and abdominal lesions of actinomycosis. This is a rare bacterial disease but not exceptional, discovered usually by chance on operative specimen on autopsy. The clinical and bacteriological diagnosis is very difficult although the lesions are characteristic. Thus it is always necessary to carry out biopsy and seek sulphur granules in the actinomycotic follicle. The differential diagnosis is usually easy with granulomycoses, but it is sometimes more difficult to distinguish the disease from nocardioses.