Freebased cocaine smoking and reactive airway disease.
The case of a 19-year-old white female who presented with marked respiratory distress and pleuritic chest pain following freebased cocaine smoking is presented. A ventilation-perfusion scan revealed radioactive aerosol trapping in the large airways with multiple ventilation defects of the small airways, a finding compatible with reactive airway disease of the large airways and concomitant mucous plugging of the small airways. Freebased cocaine, impurities of the freebasing process, or admixtures to the freebased cocaine provided prior to smoking, are proposed as possible etiologies in what appears to be a condition of environmentally induced reactive airway disease, a previously unreported effect of cocaine use.
Gordon
K
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Department of Medicine, University of California Irvine Medical Center, Orange 92668.
D000328:Adult; D003042:Cocaine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012120:Respiration Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio
D003042:Cocaine