AIDS and Intravenous Drug Abuse

Pulmonary talcosis with intravenous drug abuse.

Talc has been known to cause lung disease, via inhalation or intravenously. A good history along with radiological correlation will often reveal the diagnosis. However, most intravenous drug abusers are reluctant to give a history of exposure, and most diagnoses are made after lung biopsy. We present a case of acute respiratory failure that posed a diagnostic challenge and was diagnosed only af...

Needle embolism in intravenous drug abuse

Although intravenous drug users report the breaking of a needle as a relatively common occurrence, central embolism of needle fragments occurs infrequently in the literature. Central needle embolism also poses a conundrum for the radiologist, as the needle may be easily overlooked when the clinical history is nonspecific. We present two cases of needle embolism to the lung, one complicated by i...

Intravenous drug abuse and the accident and emergency department.

A 4-month prospective study of intravenous drug abusers attending an accident and emergency department was performed. A total of 92 patients presented with 104 new complaints. Seventy-eight per cent of patients were under 30 years of age and 28% were female. The primary reason for attendance was related to trauma in 30% of attendances, accidental or deliberate overdose in 26% and as a result of...

Tuberculosis, HIV seroprevalence and intravenous drug abuse in prisoners.

High rates of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV are believed to exist in Russian prisons. Prisoners with TB were studied in order to identify the following: 1) prevalence of HIV, and risk factors for HIV and other blood-borne virus infections; and 2) clinical and social factors that might compromise TB treatment effectiveness and/or patient adherence and, hence, encourage treatment failure. A 1-yr cros...

Intravenous drug abuse and the accident and emergency department: AIDS (HTLV-III) antibodies and hepatitis B markers.