Pulmonary ray fungus disease; clinical aspects and pathogenesis.

Pulmonary ray fungus is a relatively rare condition. In 1938 Cope4 was able to collect 200 cases of pleuro-pulmonary actinomycosis from the literature and Reiter17 in 1954, noted 47 cases of this disease described during the preceding ten years; of pulmonary nocardiosis only 47 cases have been described.20 It is reported that in large hospitals clinicians encounter three to five cases of pulmonary ray fungus disease over a pe. nod of ten years.4 10 In the Rothschild Hadassah University Hospital five cases of thoracic ray fungus diseases were detected during the sixteen year period 19401955 and these are described in the present report. Two were cases of actinomycosis and two of nocardiosis; in one case the genus of the ray fungus was not determined. Case Reports