Obstructive atelectasis of the lung.

A 78-year-old man presented with cough, sputum, fever (max 39°C) and neutrophilic leucocytosis (WBC 11.000/mmc). Five months earlier, he had the same symptoms and a CT scan had shown a triangular, wedge-shaped opacity of the middle lobe. No air bronchogram was present (figure 1A). At that time, he was treated with a 10-days course of a cephalosporin, with improvement of …