[Amebic abscess in the liver diagnosed initially as pneumonia].

Three cases of amoebic liver abscess were initially diagnosed as pneumonia. All three patients had fever, respiratory pain at the right costal margin, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate and white blood cell count, pulmonary infiltrate and pleural exudate. The first case was a relapse of an infection acquired at a visit to the tropics sixteen years previously. The second patient had spent a short holiday in Morocco seven months before the illness and the third patient was probably infected in Greenland. The correct diagnosis was confirmed by demonstration of a cavity in the liver, amoebic antibodies in the blood and good response to amoebicidal treatment which was combined with closed drainage in two cases.