TY - JOUR
T1 - Pulmonary candidiasis in a heroin addict
T2 - Some remarks on its aetiology and pathogenesis
AU - Lazzarin, A.
AU - Uberti-Foppa, C.
AU - Galli, M.
AU - Crocchiolo, P.
AU - Moroni, M.
PY - 1985
Y1 - 1985
N2 - We describe a case of pulmonary candidiasis in a 26-year old drug-addict who had been recently submitted to a porto-caval bypass operation. This opportunistic infection appeared after an injection of heroin. The same patient was also found to suffer from a severe cellular immune response defect. No opportunistic fungal infections were observed, despite the frequent use of intravenous heroin, in a group of 20 parenteral drug addicts. The latter patients, however, were showing only minor abnormalities of their immunological status. Although in this case the main cause of the disease may have been the injection of heroin contaminated with the infecting organism, other important factors contributing to the development of opportunistic mycoses seem to be a reduced microbicidal capacity of the polymorphonuclear leukocytes and an impaired cell-mediated immunity.
AB - We describe a case of pulmonary candidiasis in a 26-year old drug-addict who had been recently submitted to a porto-caval bypass operation. This opportunistic infection appeared after an injection of heroin. The same patient was also found to suffer from a severe cellular immune response defect. No opportunistic fungal infections were observed, despite the frequent use of intravenous heroin, in a group of 20 parenteral drug addicts. The latter patients, however, were showing only minor abnormalities of their immunological status. Although in this case the main cause of the disease may have been the injection of heroin contaminated with the infecting organism, other important factors contributing to the development of opportunistic mycoses seem to be a reduced microbicidal capacity of the polymorphonuclear leukocytes and an impaired cell-mediated immunity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0021913467&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0021913467&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
C2 - 3856443
AN - SCOPUS:0021913467
VL - 80
SP - 103
EP - 104
JO - British Journal of Addiction
JF - British Journal of Addiction
SN - 0952-0481
IS - 1
ER -